Railroad Depot     1     21 East Liberty St.

A pivotal building, built circa 1901, the York Railway Depot is one story high with a gable roof.  Brackets can be seen under the roofing and around the windows and doors.  The doors are composed of beaded clapboards.  Original shingles remain on the roof.  The exterior wall material is clapboard.  The Kings Mountain Railroad was established in 1852 and connected Yorkville with a main railroad line running from Charlotte to Gastonia, NC and then to Atlanta.  The local line was eventually extended to Chester and made connection there with the Charlotte-to-Columbia main line.  It ultimately became part of the Southern system.  This was a passenger and freight depot.  When the line was abandoned during the early 1980s, the Railroad Company leased the property to the City of York for a token sum.  The building was recently renovated by the city and houses the Chamber of Commerce and other civic and service organizations.

Built in 1899 by Colonel W.W. Lewis, a prominent lawyer, this Victorian building with a hip roof is 2 ½ stories high and features two wings, a bay with dormer, a one-story open porch with Ionic columns, balcony, beaded clapboard undersiding, an entablature over the main doors, lugsills under 1/1 windows, and a corbeled belt.   Present owner-occupants are Mr. & Mrs. Peter Cumbie.

A pivotal house.  This house was built circa 1850 by William Barron, an illustrious plantation merchant of York County.  Soon after its completion, William Barron sold it to the Grist family, publishers of the town newspaper, and later it was sold to William Blackburn Wilson, a signer of the Ordinance of Secession.  The house was considered a blend of Georgian farmhouse and Greek revival influence.  The house was later owned by Joseph Franklin Wallace, who was Clerk of Court for York County.  The house stood on a lot of 1 ½ acres.  Mr. and Mrs. Wallace reared six children in this house, and it was joked at the time that they added a room and some addition to the porch with the addition of each child.  Upon Mr.Wallace's death, the house went to his daughter, Annie (Wallace) Marshall.  This house was always a gathering place for young people.  Mr. Marshall built a large playhouse, complete with a large fireplace, in the back of the lot where they gathered.

Built in 1910, this Prairie style building with medium hip roof is 1½ stories high and features a dormer, four columns supporting an open porch with a flat roof, recessed transom and sidelights around the main door, lintels and lugsills around windows, and brick exterior.  This was the residence of South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph R. Moss.

This may be the oldest house in York.  It is one of the three thought to be among the oldest, but we have been unable to determine which one truly holds that distinction.  A major significance of this house is that it can be divided into three stages of construction.  The first stage represents the original part of the house.  Portions of that house, dating to the 1700s, are still intact and rest on four cut-stone pillars which compose the foundation.  The original floor plan was square in shape, as evidenced by the placement of the pillars.  There is also evidence of a chimney at one time located in the central part of the original house.

The second stage of construction, circa 1840, involved the addition of several rooms to the front section of the house.  The floor plan was rectangular and remains so today.  Handhewn chestnut beams and saw-cut beams made of pine logs were installed to the brick foundation, which was put together with salt mortar.

The third stage, circa 1855-1860, included the addition of the front porch and façade in Greek Revival style.  That builder, William D. Miller, was presumably the owner at the time.  Additional improvements to the house were made around 1920 and included a kitchen with modern flooring.

A pivotal house.  This 1½-story house is an antebellum building with a low hip roof.  Four columns on brick piers support a one-story open porch with a flat roof.  Two 9/9, ceiling-to-floor windows are on the front.  A recessed transom and sidelights frame the main door.  The exterior is stuccoed, and the property is landscaped.  Originally, this was a two-story house.  The classical upper story of this building burned about 1905.  The remaining lower structure was not destroyed due to the brick construction.  A roof was put over the lower floor, and it remains this way today.

Originally, the house was similar to the Hart House (12) across the street.  Outside circular staircases with carved wood banisters led from the ground to each end of the upper porch.  Cement open arches enclosed the front opening of the ground floor porch and entrance to the lower floor.  A picket fence enclosed the yard, and wisteria climbed on the front of the house.

Almost in the back yard, and a little to the east, was a building which housed the “marble yard”, where the late Thomas C. O'Farrell cut and lettered granite and marble tombstones.  This was the forerunner of Wiley Brothers Marble and Granite, which is now located on the east side of the cemetery.

After the death of Mr. White's widow, the house was bought by Mr. Arthur Veeder Snell and his wife Jennie (Hart) as a retirement home.  Mr. Snell is thought to have been the first City Manager in the United States, holding that position in Sumter, S.C.  He was Executive Director of Chambers of Commerce in South Carolina, Florida, Pittsburgh and Chattanooga before retiring and returning to Yorkville.

This is one of the few non-public-owned or supported city burial grounds and is operated by a self-perpetuating board of directors who depend on donations from descendants of those buried in the cemetery.  The Confederate monument in the park at the front of the cemetery contains a beautiful tribute to “Our Confederate Dead” by Judge I.D. Witherspoon.  The monument and cemetery are built on the site of the Independent Presbyterian Church, which was organized in 1810.  The Cemetery began in 1829 and is the resting place of many prominent South Carolina statesmen.  Also, at least eight Union soldiers of the Seventh Cavalry and 18th infantry, which was quartered in York as the Army of Occupation during Reconstruction, are buried in the southeast corner of the cemetery.  The 7th Cavalry later fought Native Americans with George A. Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn and fought at the Battle of Wounded Knee.