HISTORIC OCONEE COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA Subject: Seneca Historical District Version 1.0, 5-Jan-2003, FCH-09.txt **************************************************************** REPRODUCING NOTICE: ------------------- These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, or presentation by any other organization, or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Paul M Kankula - nn8nn Seneca, SC, USA Oconee County SC GenWeb Coordinator Oconee County SC GenWeb Homestead http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/oconee.html Oconee County SC GenWeb Tombstone Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/cemeteries.html http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery/southcarolina/oconee.html Contributor: Frederick C. Holder, Box 444, Pickens, SC 29671 **************************************************************** DATAFILE INPUT . : Paul M. Kankula at kankula1@innova.net in Jan-2003 DATAFILE LAYOUT : Paul M. Kankula at kankula1@innova.net in Jan-2003 HISTORY WRITE-UP : Frederick C. Holder in 1989 SENECA HISTORIC DISTRICT - Houses date from about 1876 to about 1926 A wide variety of architectural styles can be found in The Seneca Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. These houses and churches, with their different architectural styles, show changing tastes among the middle and upper class of Seneca's white society, as well as the growth and development of the town of Seneca. The town of Seneca was created when the Air Line railroad (today part of the Southern Railroad) was completed in 1873. Most early houses were built to the north and south of the business district and the tracks. The first church building, called the Union Church, was built on the north side of town and was used by all denominations. Within only a few years, the various denominations - Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Baptist - had moved to the south side, leaving the Methodists with the Union Church building. Early houses and churches tended to be simple wooden buildings without any particular architectural style, though the beautifully proportioned 1881 Episcopal Church exhibits the Carpenter Gothic influence. Seneca benefited from the growth and development of the cotton growing and processing industry from the late nineteenth century into the twentieth century, as well as the large number of merchants who located their businesses within Seneca. The growing network of coun- ty roads, a number of which passed through the town, made Seneca in- to the largest business town in the county by the 1930s. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, wealthier families built fine homes on the south side. Some of the houses along West South First Street and Townville Street are par- ticularly interesting examples of this time period. Examples of the Col- onial Revival style, as well as houses adapted from the Queen Anne and Shingle style of architecture, are included in this group. As the town developed and particularly between 1911 and 1929, different styles of houses and churches became more desirable and fashionable. The Seneca Baptist and Seneca Presbyterian churches, brick buildings with neo-classical characteristics, are excellent ex- amples from this period. A number of the houses incorporated elements of the Bungalow style. The Bungalow style, as seen in Seneca, is represented by those houses where most of the rooms are on the ground floor and where a large unornamented porch is a major feature of the house. Some of these bungalow style houses incor- porated elements of the Colonial and Tudor Revival styles on the ex- terior. Though not part of the Seneca Historic District, a number of houses on the south side of Seneca are a type of modified bungalow. The floor plan of these houses are similar to those featured in magazines of the period and sold by the catalogue firms of Sears and Roebuck, Mortgomery Ward; and various lumber companies after 1910. Some houses built or altered after 1900 made use of characteristics found in houses from an earlier time period. A house on South Fairplay Street, for example, exhibits a second floor that "is supposed to look somewhat like the black and white timber houses built in England during the sixteenth century. Columns were added to a two-story house along South First Street to give the appearance of a Greek Revival plantation home, and the porches were removed from another two-story house on South First Street in order to make it look more like the Colonial Revival style. Some houses incorporated door- ways adapted from the styles of the colonial period. Location: The Seneca Historic District is south of the Railroad track in downtown Seneca. It includes portions of South First, South Second, South Third, Townville, Fairplay, Oak, Pine, and Poplar Streets. The Lunney House and Museum, a composite of architectural styles, located on West South First Street, is open to the public, as is the Blue Ridge Art Association housed in the old Episcopal Church on the cor- ner of Townville and South Second streets. READING LIST: Frances Holleman, Seneca, South Carolina Centennial 1873-1973 (Greenville, S.C.: Creative Printers, 1973). George H. Chapman, Health Resorts of the South (Boston, 1891), 135-146.