City Directories and History: The Ingram-Montgomery home built in the early 1840’s between the communities of Richburg and Great Fall, S.C. in eastern Chester
County, is one of the regions gems of vernacular architecture. In the mid 1980s the Director of Historic Brattonsville in York County, S.C. first visited this structure and within a short span had met the owner and purchased the house for relocation to the historic village. The house is currently used as the Brattonsville Visitors Center and is open to the public. Unfortunately, the structure was unable to be moved intact, so architectural plans were drawn of the entire structure and all surface elements of the house were carefully measured, photographed, and removed to a secure storage unit. A new foundation and exacting framework was constructed on the identical scale of the original and the architectural elements were reinstalled as they had been originally.
Architecturally, this structure features several distinct features including handsome proportions, extended porch columns (a feature rarely found outside of the Catawba River Basin), exterior porch wainscoting, interior wainscoting, handmade mantels, beautifully made six panel doors, heart pine flooring, and stylish moldings. Further research needs conducting on the history of the house but it is likely attributable to Green B. Montgomery, a Chester County house contractor, listed as a eighty-five year old ” mechanic” in the census of 1860. Listed with a worth of $8,886., Mr. Montgomery would have been in his prime when he perhaps built this outstanding example of regional architecture. Mr. Montgomery also owned considerable tracts at Rocky Mount – see link below.
The house was constructed for Mr. Francis Ingram on a track of 535 acres of prime farmland along what was even then, a major travel route. Mr. Ingram was an extensive landowner as well as owned and operated the Ingram-Gooch Ferry across the Catawba River near Lancaster, SC. Green Berry Montgomery later married the widow of Frances Ingram, Dorcus and made it his home.
In 2013, a neighbor of the old home, emphatically stated, “Green Berry Montgomery built the old house before marrying the widow of Mr. Ingram, I think her name was ______.” The owner at the time it was purchased for restoration at Historic Brattonsville was Mr. W.J. “Bill Joe” Jordan, who lived across the road from the home.
Tilman Ingram, the son of Frances Ingram, moved to Gainesville, Florida with a migration from Chester County, SC in the 1850’s and was the contractor for the Courthouse. He later moved to Texas. (See genealogical data attached.)
Additional information: Historic Brattonsville , “I” House Architecture,
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