City Directories and History: The Hattie J. Peeples house is significant as an excellent and intact example of a transitional Italianate and Queen Anne style residence in a small town. Construction began in 1889 and was competed by October 1893, when the Rev. Edwin W. Peeples and his wife, Hattie Johns Peeples moved into the house. The house is an L-shaped, two-story, five bay, gable roofed, frame and weatherboard residence. It was built in the Italianate style, but borrowed the L-shaped floor plan and the projecting pavilion from the Italian Villa style and the canted bays, encircling porch, and textured wall surfaces from the Queen Anne style. In 1911, the Hattie J. Peeples House became the first in Varnville to have electricity. Peeples’ son-in-law, Wilbur Ginn, an electrical engineer and graduate of Clemson College, wired the house and many others in the area. There are two contributing outbuildings associated with this property: a frame and weatherboard butler’s quarters, built in 1885; and a brick building, built ca. 1920 to replace an earlier frame structure destroyed by a fire in 1917. This building served as a post office from the time of its construction until 1964. Hattie J. Peeples served for more than thirty years as postmistress. Listed in the National Register October 31, 1992. (Courtesy of South Carolina Department of Archives and History)
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NATIONAL REGISTER IMAGE(S)
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