Tour of Homes

236 Kings Mountain St. - Episcopal Church Home for Children

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.

Kings Mountain Street