Blackville SC Heritage Trail

This is a self guided tour.
A brochure with map can be picked up in front of the
Old Depot-Library at 1420 Solomon Blatt Ave.

For information on guided tours of these and other places of interest
contact:
Joan McDonald
Email joanemcd60@bellsouth.net, phone 803-284-3267.
 

 

Court House Square/ Old Depot
1420 Solomon Blatt Ave, Blackville

Blackville was the county seat from 1869-1874.  The new court house was a two-storied, red brick structure. 

After the county seat was returned to Barnwell,  the building was used as an opera house, private school, and finally as the public school for white students.

 The building was demolished during the 1950s, and the Old Depot building was moved from West Main Street to this site in 1985.
 
The Depot, constructed in the early 1900s and renovated in 2005, now houses the Blackville Branch Library.

 

 

Healing Springs Baptist Church
Hwy. 3 north, turn right on Healings Springs Rd.

The church was organized by a small band under the leadership of the Reverend Nathaniel Walker, the first pastor, who gave the land on which the church was built.

 The present sanctuary, begun in 1853, was designed and supervised by Israel Walker, a descendant of the founder.  Israel Walker also carved the original pulpit.  The pews, sills, and much of the lumber were hewn by slaves and have withstood the ravages of time; however, the pews have been replaced by modern ones.
 
Since additional room was needed, four rooms were added in 1940, and the sanctuary was remodeled in 1967.

 It is from this church that many churches in the area evolved.

 

 

Farrell-O'Gorman House
650 Main Street

Just prior to the Civil War, Patrick Farrell came to South Carolina from New York to be educated by a relative.  He joined the Confederate Army and fought for the South.  He acquired large land holdings and also became a merchant.  He built this large home for his family in 1875.  He and his son were responsible for several of the brick buildings on Main Street, including the Shamrock Hotel.  The family was also influential in the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.  Of Irish ancestry himself, Patrick Farrell sent to Ireland for a young man named O'Gorman to help in the business.  This young man married Mr. Farrell's daughter, and they inherited the home.  South Carolina's Catholic bishops visited in the home so often over the years that the family calls one suite of rooms the Bishops' Suite.  This lovely house has been home of six generations of the Farrell and O'Gorman families.

 

Market Hall
5733 Lartigue Street

The first floor of the building was erected in 1859 on the first property owned by the town. The lower part of the structure was made of handmade brick of local clay and baked in the sun.

 The original purpose of the building was to serve as a market.
 
It is said that when there was fresh meat for sale, a bell would be rung, and people would hurry to purchase what they needed.  Thus, the name Market Hall.
 
The second floor was added later and has been used as a school, a town hall, a theater where Blackville citizens enjoyed magic lantern shows, a library, and the first floor housed the fire truck. 

The James H. Hammond Museum was dedicated here in 1970.

The Simon Brown House
429 Main Street

The house was built about 1849.
 Simon Brown came from what is now Poland, and his sons became prominent planters and merchants.  Mr. and Mrs. Brown had thirteen children. 

The house is said to have been spared from being burned by Union troops in February, 1865, when Mrs. .Brown waved a Masonic flag from the upper porch. 

The commanding officer recognized the sign and ordered that the house be spared.

 Members of the Brown family continued to reside in the house until the 1930s.



 

Tabernacle Baptist Church
243 Main Street

The church was organized in the year 1894 by one hundred nine members who emerged from the Macedonia Baptist Church for the purpose of organizing a house to worship God and "to be filled with love and harmony."  The first building was demolished by a storm in the early 1900s, and this building was erected and used as a house of worship until 2004.  This was one of the first brick buildings to be constructed for an African-American congregation in this area.

 

Hagood House
3151 Dexter Street

This house was built circa 1850 by Dr. William H. Hagood, a brother of Governor Johnson Hagood.
 The house is built of sawed timber and hand-hewn beams.  Victorian trim and several rooms were added after the original construction.  Dr. Hagood served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army.  During the Union Army's visit to Blackville, Mrs. Hagood and her eleven children were forced to live in ne room of the house.  Invading soldiers used the rest of the house as a temporary infirmary for their wounded, according to information related by a Hagood descendant.

 Wagons were parked under the house, and when the army moved out, they took rugs from the house to line the beds of the wagons for the wounded. 

They set fire to the house, but former slaves, who remained on the property, put the fire out and saved the residence.

 

Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Lartigue and Dexter St.

The church was built in 1898.  Formerly on this site was a frame building called Saint Matthew's Church.  St. Matthew's burned in 1887, only three years after it was built.  Sacred Heart is a brick Gothic structure with beautiful stained-glass windows, which were imported from Germany.  One window depicts the Nativity and another the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Near the altar are two statues imported from Munich, Germany, one of the Sacred Heart and one of the Virgin Mary.

 

Blackville United Methodist Church
Lartigue and Boundary St.

The Methodist Advocate declared the church to have been active prior to 1841.  However, 1856 is the established date for the Blackville circuit's becoming a part of the Orangeburg District.  It is said that while in Blackville, Union troops housed some of their horses inside the church.  The foundation of the first building is part of the current building.  The church was partially destroyed by fire in 1887, had temporary repairs, and was reconstructed in 1897.  The church is beautiful in its simplicity.

 

The Mathis House
332 S. Boundary St.

The house was erected by Charles Mathis, a planter who experimented with new crops.
He is thought to have been the first to plant cantaloupes in the area.

 He purchased the property and built the spacious well-appointed home circa 1889.

 There is a brick, cellar-type room under the back of the house, which is thought to have served as a warming kitchen and a place to store perishables.