A pivotal house.  The Spencer house, circa 1870, was built by Charles Edward Spencer (1849-1921) on a large tract of land for his first wife, Sarah Harris Clawson (1849-1883).  Broad Street, just to the north, runs through this former dairy farm property.  Col. Spencer, a professor at Kings Mountain Military Academy, was later a successful York attorney.

The 2½-story home features a prominent front entrance with first-and-second story pedimented porch, both having double doorways framed by entablatures.  Inside details include wide central hallways with curved archways, transomed doorway, floor-length windows and eight fireplaces.  A summer kitchen is attached to the rear of the home via a bay-windowed studio.

A pivotal house.  This Carpenter Gothic building with a hip roof is 1½ stories high. Two one-and-one-half story wings with gable roofs are located on either side.  A 1½ story bay with a gable roof and dormer is on the front. Brackets, beaded clapboard, and small windows decorate the dormer.  Two one-and-one-half story dormers with hip roofs are also on the front and are decorated like the bay dormer.  A one-story open porch with a flat roof is on the front and a pediment is attached.  Fluted molding and bracketed entablature frame the main door.  Windows are 1/1.  Exterior wall material is beaded clapboard, and the roof is composed of imbricated tiles.

This house was built in the 1890's on land that was originally part of the property of the Gist family which lived next door.  It was purchased by Dr. James McDowell from Floride Propst, the widow of the builder.  Dr. McDowell had married Mattie Spencer, whose family lived in the two-story house across the street.  The McDowells raised three daughters; the eldest, Mary Alice, never married and lived in the house until her death in 1980.  Two rooms in the back of the house were added later one for an aunt, Rebecca McDowell, who came to live with the family.  The second room, with five windows, served as a sanitarium for Dr. McDowell, who had contracted tuberculosis. 
Dan andPeggy Enright own and occupy the house. 

This home is on the National Register of Historic Places.

A pivotal house.  Built after 1800, this Victorian cottage is 1½ stories high with a gable roof.  The gables display decorative carvings and blind windows.  A one-story open porch with a hip roof is on the front.  It features a pediment, nine carved posts, and brackets. Fluted molding frames the door.  A wainscot is located on the first floor with diagonal beaded clapboard above the vertical beaded clapboard below.

In 1918, Margaret E. McCorkle purchased the lot with a wood frame house from Wade W. Ferguson who had purchased it from Harvey E. Ferguson in 1916.  Margaret resided at the home with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. R. R. McCorkle.  Around 1927 she had the house brick veneered, which covered scorched areas on the house received when the house next door burned.

Features of the house include narrow hardwood floors, high ceilings, original mantels (one hand-carved), pocket doors and original light fixtures.

A pivotal house.  Tradition has it that during the 1840s, a wealthy New Orleans gentleman moved to York, South Carolina for his health and brought his own architect with him.  The house he built was designed and situated to receive the sun in winter but not in summer.  The trim of the piazza is definitely reflective of the New Orleans influence.  The columns of the Greek Revival entry porch are set in white marble bases.  Black and white marble was used for the floor of the entrance porch.  Downstairs the ceilings are high; upstairs they are low.  The first floor is cool throughout the summer by being high off the ground and insulated by the second story above.  Jeff and Lana Rossy are present owner-occupants.

A pivotal house.  Built in 1925 by Charles Ellie Lawrence, this home exemplifies the Spanish Revival styling atypical of the upcountry.  Of interest are the semicircular windows flanking the centrally located doorway which features recessed fan and sidelights.  The roof is medium hipped with a very rare molded-tin tiling with wooden balustrade on all facades.  A total of seven entrance doors and twelve French doors are also of special interest.  Alex and Bobby Almaguer are present owner-occupants.

This three-story traditional home was built in 1924 as the Mason Lodge Carroll family home.  A special feature of the home are lamps on the side porch which are from an old horse-drawn funeral coach.  After Mr. Carroll's death, Mrs. Carroll began taking in boarders, everyone from circus owners to artists and historians.  Larry and Sherry McCray restored the home.

This three-story home was begun by the owner of Mackorell Brothers Wholesale Grocers in 1917 and was completed in 1920.  The house was called “The Aquarium” during the ten years he lived in the house until it was purchased by Mr. And Mrs. David Richard Suyes III in 1999.  The Suyes family completed extensive renovations. Some of the distinguishing features include a unique hand-raked gold brick exterior, cherry inlaid floors, five sixty-five hand-rolled glass windows, the original 1920s central vacuum system, and the grand entrance foyer.  Renovations included a wrought iron fence, a heated swimming pool, the paved circular drive, and the transformation of the carriage house into guest quarters.

Built by Thomas F. McDow, prominent York attorney, now deceased, the house was purchased by the late John M. Spratt, Sr., and is now owned and occupied by Congressman John M. Spratt, Jr., representative of the Fifth Congressional District of South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Mrs. Spratt.

In 1857 two Citadel graduates, Micah Jenkins and Asbury Coward, established Kings Mountain Military Academy (KMMA) at this location.  It was recognized as a leading preparatory school throughout the Southeast.  With the beginning of the Civil War, the two men were commissioned in the Confederate Army and the school closed.  Micah Jenkins rose to the rank of Brigadier General and was mistakenly killed by his own troops at the Battle of the Wilderness.  Col. Coward returned and reopened the school, operating it for a number of years.  Later he was named President of the Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, in Charleston.  The Episcopal Church Home for Children, now known as York Place, had its beginning in Charleston in 1850, and was the first church-supported home for children in South Carolina.  The home was moved to York in 1909, occupying facilities of the defunct KMMA.  It continued to operate as an orphanage until 1968 when a part of the facility began care and treatment of emotionally disturbed children.  This was the first such center in the Southeast.  Since that time, it has become solely a treatment center and so it continues today.  It is supported by the Upper and Lower Dioceses of South Carolina.

None of the buildings of KMMA remain today.  Matthew Dickson's Tavern once stood here and legend has it that the town of York was created at this establishment.

The tour returns south on Kings Mountain Street to Herndon Avenue.