City Directories and History: Smith’s Tavern, a farmhouse built at the end of the Revolution (ca. 1790), served as a coach stop in the Spartanburg District of South Carolina and was probably a meeting place for farmers living in lower Spartanburg County. The house is significant as a reminder of the era between the Revolution and 1850, when the stagecoach was a key means of transportation in the state. Travel was slow, and many stops were made at inns and taverns before the final destination could be reached. Smith’s Tavern, overlooking the intersection of two eighteenth century roads, is located on what was once a primary route from Columbia to Spartanburg and the North Carolina mountains. It is a two-story clapboard Carolina “I-House” with a shed-roof porch at the front and a one-story kitchen addition to the rear. The house has two corbelled gable-end chimneys and a large chimney at the rear of the old kitchen addition. The brick courses in one of the gable-end chimneys are laid in a diamond patterned tapestry, offset by glazed headers. The tapestried chimney is one of few remaining in South Carolina. Listed in the National Register July 23, 1974. (Courtesy of South Carolina Department of Archives and History)
“Travel was slow; and many stops were made at inns and taverns along the way, almost all of them private homes whose owners accommodated guests. Smith’s Tavern, a 1780- 1790 two-story white clapboard farmhouse with corbeled gable-end chimneys, one laid in a diamond-patterned tapestry, stands on a hill overlooking the old Stone Station Road (S.C. 215) between Roebuck and Walnut Grove. Structurally unaltered and retaining many of its original features — hand-carved mantels, woodwork, doors with original hardware, windows — Smith’s Tavern has been a prominent Spartanburg County landmark for almost 200 years.”
Smith’s Tavern, a 1780- 1790 two-story white clapboard farmhouse with corbeled gable-end chimneys, one laid in a diamond-patterned tapestry, stands on a hill overlooking the old Stone Station Road (S.C. 215) between Roebuck and Walnut Grove. Structurally unaltered and retaining many of its original features — hand-carved mantels, woodwork, doors with original hardware, windows — Smith’s Tavern has been a prominent Spartanburg County landmark for almost 200 years.
Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC
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