Spartansburg County Historical Association and Museums [SC]

Description

The Spartansburg County Historical Association seeks to preserve and share the history of Spartansburg County, South Carolina. To this end, the society operates three historical sites and a regional museum. The Seay House began as a Scots-Irish one-story log home, built before 1850. This residence is most like the dwelling of an average early inhabitant of the Spartansburg area. Interpretation focuses on late 19th- and early 20th-century women's lives. The circa 1795 Price House grounds also include a kitchen building and double-pen slave cabin. The home served as a residence and bed and breakfast. Interpretation focuses on the original owners, Thomas and Anne Price. The circa 1765 Walnut Grove Plantation includes a plantation home, Rocky Spring Academy, a forge, a meat house, a kitchen building, a well house, a barn, and the reconstructed office of the region's earliest physician to have received collegiate training. The site depicts area life prior to 1805. The Regional History Museum's permanent exhibits address an chronological overview of Spartansburg area developments, textiles, military history, and locally made furniture.

The Seay House offers period rooms, interpretive signage, and school tours. The Price House offers period rooms and guided tours. Walnut Grove Plantation offers guided tours of the home, kitchen, and Rocky Spring Academy; self-guided grounds tours; a nature trail; and the Moore family cemetery. The Regional History Museum offers student tours, curriculum-based programs for students, exhibits, traveling trunks, and summer camps. Reservations are required for school tours to the Seay House and for groups of 10 or more visiting the Price House and/or Walnut Grove Plantation. Visitors to the cemetery are asked to remain on the trail.

Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site [SC]

Description

The Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site preserves one of South Carolina's most important archaeological treasures, the remains of Colonial Dorchester. Dorchester was a trading post that flourished between 1697 through the Revolutionary War, when the town was abandoned. Some of the town remains standing and visible, such as the church bell tower and a long warf, but most of the town lies just out of sight underground.

The historic site offers guided tours, workshops, and field trip programs. The website offers brief historical and visitor information regarding the historic site.

Kensington Mansion [SC]

Description

Kensington Mansion is an 1854 Italianate Revival residence furnished with Victorian decorative arts. The grounds include the original kitchen building. Jacob Stroyer's (1848-1909) biography My Life in the South, published in 1879, described his time as a slave on Headquarters Plantation, site of Kensington Manor.

The mansion offers period rooms and guided tours. Reservations are required for groups of 10 or more.

Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois, and United Tribes of South Carolina

Description

Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois, and United Tribes of South Carolina is an organization which seeks to preserve and share the history and culture of the Native American peoples of South Carolina. To this end, the organization is politically active and educational.

The society offers outreach music, dancing, and performance presentations; storytelling; demonstrations; outreach cultural, historical, and archaeological lectures; hands-on educational outreach programs; and curriculum guides. All of the aforementioned offerings are designed for or can be tailored to student needs.

Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site [SC]

Description

The Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site commemorates the site of a British outpost during the revolutionary war and was also the site of one of the worst American defeats during the war. The park offers an impressive variety of activities for visitors, and is home to six historic structures, all of which are open to the public and offer exhibits and/or period rooms.

The park offers exhibits, guided tours, special events such as re-enactments and workshops, and hiking trails. The website offers visitor information, historical information regarding Camden, and a schedule of events.

Penn Center National Historic Landmark District [SC]

Description

The Penn Center is one of the nation's first schools for freed slaves and remains one of the most significant African American historical and cultural insitutions in existence today. The Penn Center also seeks to promote and preserve the culture of the Sea Islands of southern South Carolina.

The Penn Center offers exhibits, guided tours of the museum, the Program for Academic and Cultural Enrichment (PACE), and special events. PACE offers after school sessions, a summer enrichment program, a teen leadership institute, and the Child Development Center. The website offers visitor information, a history of the site, and an events calendar.

Heyward-Washington House [SC]

Description

The Heyward-Washington House was built in 1772 by rice planter Daniel Heyward for his son Thomas Heyward, Junior (1746-1809), Revolutionary War soldier and signer of the Declaration of Independence. The residence was rented to George Washington for one week during 1791. Other structures on site include an 18th-century well, a 1740s kitchen building, and a carriage house. Collection highlights include the Holmes Bookcase, considered the finest example of furniture made in the U.S.

The site offers period rooms; gardens with heirloom plants; educational programs; outreach programs; and student tours with a general, Revolutionary War, African American history, or architectural focus.

Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site [SC]

Description

Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site commemorates the site at which English settlers landed in 1670. From there, they established a settlement which would eventually birth the plantation system, the Carolina Colony, and a major maritime commerce center. The site includes a 12-room museum; a 17th-century replica maritime vessel, the trading ketch Adventure; a natural habitat zoo; reconstructed fortifications; and 80 acres of gardens. The zoo houses animal species which lived in South Carolina circa 1670.

The site offers interactive exhibits; musket, cannon, and open hearth cooking demonstrations; hands-on activities; guided and self-guided educational programs which correspond to state educational standards; audio tours; gardens; interpretive trails; and picnic areas. Strollers and wheelchairs are available for use on site.

Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site [SC]

Description

Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site presents the 1859 Greek Revival residence of Representative, Senator, and Governor James Henry Hammond (1807-1864). Hammond is perhaps best known for his words "Cotton is King!," describing the economy of the southern United States. The site includes Hammond's home, heirloom gardens, a lane of 145-year-old magnolia trees, the preserved slave quarters, and 369 acres of surrounding land.

The site offers house tours, lectures, and third- and eighth-grade programs in accordance with state educational standards.

Hampton Plantation State Historic Site [SC]

Description

The Hampton Plantation State Historic Site presents the stories of slavery within the plantation system, the plantation life of African Americans post-emancipation, Lowcountry (coastal South Carolina) rice production, and colonial architecture. The 274-acre site includes an 18th-century Georgian plantation home and kitchen building.

The site offers guided tours, educational programs, interpretive trails, and a waterway canoe tour. The website offers transcriptions of letters written by plantation inhabitants.