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Historic Sites in Oconee County SC
Long Creek Academy
1251 Acadamy Road
Long Creek, SC 29658

Long Creek Academy opened in 1914 and operated until 1956, and trained dozens of Baptist ministers and hundreds of lay persons. Long Creek Academy was organized by the Beaverdam Baptist Association to educate in a Christian manner the boys and girls of the northwestern rural area of South Carolina's mountain section. It was originally part of a system of mountain mission schools overseen by the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. The school operated as a private corporation headed by Luther Henry Raines after 1931 when the Baptists withdrew from the academy business. The Main Building and Sullivan Building, both large two-story frame buildings, were the first two school structures to be built, in 1914 and 1917 respectively, and remain much as they originally appeared. The Main Building was built as a combination school and girls dormitory. It is L-shaped, has two stories and an attic, and is of wood frame construction with weatherboard siding on the first story and wood shingles on the second. The foundation of river rock mixed with concrete has been stuccoed and scored to resemble cut stone. The building features a gable-roofed portico sheltering the three central bays of the seven bay front elevation. The four Doric columns supporting the portico are stucco-faced brick. The gable end of the portico contains a semi-circular fanlight. The Sullivan Building is a two-story, L-shaped, wood frame structure with a hip roof and a basement. It is sheathed in unpainted weatherboarding and has a concrete and river rock foundation. There are eight brick chimneys. The interior contains twenty-four rooms. Listed in the National Register November 20, 1987.

GPS Coordinates: 34-47-36 N, 083-14-47 W

Main Building

Sullivan Building

Oconee State Park Historic District
624 State Park Road
Mountain Rest, SC

Oconee State Park is significant for its association with the Great Depression era efforts of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to protect South Carolina's natural areas through conservation and recreational development while providing job opportunities for unemployed American men. In addition, the park embodies the rustic architecture and landscape aesthetic, inspired by the National Park Service and United States Forest Service, and implemented by the CCC in the construction of state and national recreational parks during the Great Depression. The Oconee State Park Historic District contains 63 contributing resources and 60 non-contributing altered, deteriorated, or modern resources. Most of the contributing resources are arranged around a man-made swimming lake and include vacation cabins, a bathhouse, a central administrative building, two residences and two picnic shelters. The park is a forest dominated by hardwoods and pine. The topography is characterized by two man-made lakes and a number of small creeks and springs. The existing layout of the park remains faithful to the original design laid out by the CCC between 1936 and 1942. Although alterations have been made to the park since the end of the period of CCC involvement, most of the buildings and other park features remain intact today, in form, location, and function. Listed in the National Register June 16, 2004.

GPS Coordinates: 34-52-1 N, 083-6-25 W


Superintendent's Residence

Shelter


Russell House
NW of Mountain Rest on SC Hwy 28
Mountain Rest, SC

The Russell House was constructed sometime after 1867 and considerably expanded around 1890 and in the early twentieth century. The house, which burned in 1988, was significant in the area of transportation for its role as a late nineteenth and early twentieth century stage stop and inn, which was operated by William Gannaway Russell (1835-1921). The inn provided accommodations for travelers between Walhalla and the mountain resort area around Highlands, N.C. The Russell House complex, which includes 10 agricultural outbuildings constructed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, is also significant in the area of agriculture. The outbuildings are representative of the diverse aspects of a small, turn of the century Appalachian farmstead. The various outbuildings, including the ruins of a log barn, a spring house, outhouse, garage, corn crib, and potato cellar, among others, illustrate common building types and construction techniques used in the region. The main house, two storage buildings, and a privy were destroyed by fire on May 14, 1988. Listed in the National Register February 29, 1988.


Russell House Ruins


Newry Historic District
10 Miles North of Downtown Seneca, SC off SC Hwy 183
Newry, SC

The Newry Historic District encompasses a textile mill village established at the turn of the century. Situated in a rural setting in the Little River Valley, the town of Newry is visually isolated by a series of surrounding ridges, dense forest, and a large earthen dam on Lake Keowee, which form the boundaries of the district. The district contains 118 properties including the mill complex, mill office, company store and post office, village church, and numerous workers residences, located within an area of approximately 250 acres. Courtenay Mill was constructed in a typical New England textile factory design. The design is attributed to W.B.S. Whaley. Most of the buildings in Newry were built during the period 1893-1910 and are examples of the turn-of-the century genre of mill village design in South Carolina. These include the principal buildings of brick construction located adjacent to the town square, i.e., company store and post office located on the north side, and mill office on the south side. The village church with late Classical Revival style details is located on Broadway in the center of Newry. Sixty-nine houses are two-story duplexes with a catslide roof, eight houses are two-story single family residences. Other wood frame buildings include four larger two-story residences believed to have been originally occupied by mill supervisors, two one-story residences, one additional church and a recreation lodge. The ruin of Innisfallen, the Neo-Classical house built for mill founder, William A. Courtenay, is located on a ridge southwest from the village. Listed in the National Register March 19, 1982.


Courtenay Mill

Aerial view of Newry, SC 


Alexander-Hill House
High Falls Park
671 High Falls Road
Seneca, SC 29672

The Alexander-Cannon-Hill house is the strongest existing architectural link between the present and Old Pickens. When the Alexander-Cannon-Hill House was originally built by Pleasant Alexander in 1831, it was located on a plantation at the edge of Old Pickens. From 1828-1868 Old Pickens was the center of government for Pickens District which in 1868 was subdivided into Pickens and Oconee counties. The house was moved to its new location in the spring of 1972 to conform with regulations of the Atomic Energy Commission. The original section of the two-story clapboard structure was built in 1831. Between this date and the Civil War the portion extending from the third window left of the main entrance to the eastern end of the house was added. Both original section and addition are constructed with mortise-and-tenon joints typical of upcountry pioneer architecture. The interior retains heart pine flooring in the entrance hall, original stairway with unadorned banister, and wainscoting in the parlor. The house has been owned by only three families. Pleasant Alexander served as sheriff of Pickens District from 1844 to 1848 and held the position of postmaster for many years. In 1874 the house and property were sold to Silas Cannon by the Alexander estate. In 1883 Cannon sold the property to J. Bennett Hill and it remained in that family until Duke Power Company acquired the property in the 1960s. Listed in the National Register July 24, 1972.

Alexander-Cannon-Hill House

McPhail Angus Farm
320 Coyote Lane
Seneca, SC 29678

The McPhail Angus Farm has been a locally significant farm for more than one hundred years. It was established in 1902 by John Augustus McPhail (1876-1961) and later expanded by his son Walter Hoolu McPhail (1901-1979). The farm complex is significant for illustrating twentieth century developments in agriculture in the South Carolina upcountry, most notably the transition from a traditional dependence on growing cotton as a cash crop to raising cattle as a major source of farm income and growing fescue grass as both a source of pasture feed and a cash crop. The Aberdeen Angus herd established in 1936 by W.H. McPhail is one of the oldest Angus herds in South Carolina and has been designated as a Historic Herd by the American Angus Association. The fescue pastures McPhail seeded here beginning in 1939 produced seed for local farmers as well as certified seed sold to established seed companies such as Pennington Seed and Sawan Seed, which in turn sold it to farmers across the Southeast. The farm is also significant as an excellent intact example of an early-to-mid-twentieth century farm complex. The farm complex includes eight properties - four buildings, three structures, and one site - that contribute to the historic and architectural character of the farm: a large ca. 1886 mule/cattle barn; a ca. 1900 fertilizer/truck shed; an early twentieth-century corn crib; an early twentieth-century chicken coop; more than 140 acres of terraced agricultural fields; the Jack Robinson House, a late nineteenth-century or early twentieth-century tenant house; the Norris House, a late nineteenth-century or early twentieth-century tenant house; and the John A. McPhail House, built ca. 1943-45. The complex also includes fourteen noncontributing modern resources. Listed in the National Register November 7, 2007.

John A. McPhail House

Mule/Cattle Barn

Old Pickens Presbyterian Church
S.C. Route 183
Seneca, SC
www.oldpickens.org

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this church/meeting house is the only building still standing on the site where the town of Pickens Courthouse was established in 1828. This meeting house-style brick church was built between 1849 and 1851. The interior contains plaster walls and the original pine floors and unpainted pews of poplar and pine. The adjacent cemetery has over 200 graves dating back to 1790.

Directions: Highway 183 towards Pickens, turn left onto Old Pickens Church Road
GPS Coordinates: 34-48-38 N, 082-55-1 W

Ram Cat Alley Historic District
Ram Cat Alley and North Townville Street
Downtown Seneca
Seneca, SC

(Seneca Downtown Historic District) The Ram Cat Alley Historic District is significant as an intact public, commercial, and social center of the City of Seneca. The district is a collection of twenty-one commercial buildings in downtown Seneca. Eighteen buildings contribute to the character of the historic district, which reflect the development of the downtown area as the center of commerce in Seneca and the surrounding county from ca. 1887 to ca. 1930. The district is a typical example of architectural and commercial development around the growth of the railroad in a small South Carolina town in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ram Cat Alley was so called because of the tendency of cats to gather around the Fred Hopkins Meat Market which was located on that street in ca. 1908. Listed in the National Register March 24, 2000.

Ballenger Historic Home
212 East South Third Street
Seneca, SC
www.historicballengerhouse.com

A community landmark, the Ballenger House (circa 1925) is a beautiful red brick home in the foursquare style and located in the hear of Historic Downtown Seneca. Surrounded by sumptuous gardens and towering oaks, the home still has the original windows, cabinets, oak floors through the house and maple floors in the kitchen and breakfast room. Used as the primary residence of the Ballenger family until 1980, the home was deeded to the Seneca Woman's Club to honor three family members who belonged to the philanthropic "Once a Week Club." The club originated in 1896 and still meets today, making it the oldest existing club in the county.

Directions: 3 blocks east of SC Hwy. 59/Oak Street on South Third Street
GPS Coordinates: 34-40-50 N, 082-57-8 W

Blue Ridge Field
Holland Avenue
Seneca, SC
www.blueridgefield.org

Once the site of the segregated African-American Blue Ridge High School football field, Blue Ridge Field today memorializes the rich history of African-American education in Oconee County from the 1800s to 1969. Blue Ridge High School was an African-American high school in Seneca prior to integration. Football was the pride of Blue Ridge and its surrounding community. After integration, the school became Seneca Junior High and then Code Elementary. The football field, which has remained vacant since the school closed in 1969, is now the site of a heritage park that, upon completion, will include history kiosks, a walking track, community gardens, picnic shelters and a recreation field.

Directions: From S. Walnut Street, turn left onto East South 2nd Street to reach Holland Street
GPS Coordinates: 34-40-57 N, 082-56-30 W

Bethel Presbyterian Church
580 Bethel Church Road
Walhalla, SC
(864) 638-0810

Founded in 1805 by General Andrew Pickens, Bethel Presbyterian is the oldest church in continuous use in Oconee County. The current house of worship was built in 1846 and restored in 2002, exposing the hand-hewed beams in the ceiling. The library contains church records dating from 1855 to the present, along with genealogies, church artifacts and a four-volume scrapbook covering 200 years of history. Outside is a cemetery that dates to the founding of the church.

Directions: North of Walhalla of SC Highway 11. Turn right onto LeCroy Road, then left onto Bethel Church Road.
GPS Coordinates: 34-49-50 N, 083-1-45 W
 

Ellicot Rock
North of Walhalla off SC 107
Walhalla, SC

Ellicott Rock, in the east bank of the Chattooga River, is the common corner of the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. As a result of the division of the Carolina province into two colonies in 1727, a dispute arose over the boundary between North and South Carolina. Beginning at the sea the boundary line was gradually established until 1813 when the terminus of the SC-NC line was set by commissioners of the two states. The last line was run on the ground and approved by both states in 1815. In 1819 commissioners for North Carolina and Georgia used the rock as a focal point for attempted settlement of the boundary dispute between their two states. Although the NC-GA line dispute still erupts periodically, the rock is recognized as the fixed common corner of all three states. Andrew Ellicott�s survey was made in 1811, and Ellicott�s notes state that he marked a rock at the time with the inscription NC-GA. A rock about 500 feet upstream bears this inscription. Local and regional usage has established the name Ellicott Rock for the rock inscribed in 1813. Listed in the National Register July 24, 1974.

Ellicot Rock

Commissioner's Rock

Keil Farm
178 Keil Farm Road
Walhalla, SC 29691

The Keil Farm is significant as an example of the evolution of an antebellum farm house from the mid-nineteenth to early the twentieth century. The ca. 1850 farm house which evolved from a two-room house plus kitchen and loft building to a seven room house plus finished loft by 1905. The additions involved the same skillful craftsmanship and prime quality lumber as did the original section. There are several distinctive features of the Keil Farm House, including an inset porch with turned and chamfered entrance posts, a well on the back porch off the kitchen, seven outside doors, and over 1,000 square feet of upstairs with unpainted heart pine tongue-and-groove boards on walls and ceiling. The farm presently consists of a one-and-one-half story frame farm house and six outbuildings, including a barn, corn crib, chicken house, smoke house, tenant house, and outhouse or privy. It is thought that most of these outbuildings may have been built by 1860 as that year's census reports livestock and produce which required shelter and storage. These buildings are clustered in an isolated scenic rural setting surrounded by woods on three sides and pasture on the other. The farm also symbolizes the role that a German immigrant family played in the settlement and development of Walhalla and Oconee County. Listed in the National Register May 20, 1998.

Farm House

Tenant House

Oconee County Cage
Oconee Heritage Museum
Walhalla, SC

(Jail on Wheels) The Oconee County Cage was one of several used in the early twentieth century as quarters for chain gang members at work sites. The cage is a small, metal cage on a wheeled chassis constructed ca. 1900. The cage was pulled by draft animals who were hitched to a metal tongue which projects from the front axle of the chassis. The cage is approximately fourteen feet long, eight feet wide, and seven feet high. The front end, the floor, and the roof are of solid sheet metal on a riveted frame. The sides of the cage are enclosed by metal bars and strips in an open grid. The rear of the cage has a hinged metal door allowing egress. The cage has twelve metal bunks inside, arranged in three tiers on each side. The bunks have metal frames carrying a mesh of metal strips, which supported the prisoners pallets. A small metal barrel in the center of the floor allowed for a fire. It is the most intact object of its type identified in the state. Listed in the National Register November 14, 1982.

Oconee County Cage

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