City Directories and History: (William Nicoll Clarkson House) The Clarkson Farm Complex includes a main house, store, smokehouse, garage, stable/garage, tenant house, pumphouse, wellhouse and pecan grove, dating from ca. 1896 to ca. 1928. Constructed by William Nicoll Clarkson (1871-1956), this collection of resources is significant as an intact late nineteenth/early twentieth century agricultural/commercial complex. Additionally, the main house, built ca. 1905, is a significant example of an elaborated and expanded I-house, a house type found throughout South Carolina, but most commonly in the Piedmont. The two-story frame building rests on a brick pier foundation and has a standing seam metal roof. A rear ell with an intersecting gable roof extends from the main block of the house, creating a L-shaped plan. Adjoining the ell at the rear is the original ca. 1896 one-story house. The Clarkson Store, built ca. 1896, and moved across the highway in 1928, is representative of a disappearing resource, and is significant as one of few surviving rural commercial buildings of its period in the Pee Dee region. A contributing pecan grove, planted in 1922, is to the south of the house. Listed in the National Register October 6, 1988.
View the complete text of the nomination form for this National Register Property.(Courtesy of South Carolina Department of Archives and History)
Additional information: William Nicoll Clarkson, born in the Suttons community of Williamsburg County, moved to Heineman c. 1890 and worked as a store clerk. After three years Clarkson bought out the owner and established his own store at Heineman; he married Kate Montgomery in 1894. In January 1896 he purchased land on the east side of the Murray’s Ferry Road (now U.S. Highway 52) and built a small two-room house and a store (facing west). Subsequent purchases increased this parcel to 175 acres and acquisition of additional acreage about a mile to the north increased Clarkson 1 s land holdings to approximately 725 acres. Clarkson produced most of the lumber used in constructing the house and outbuildings from pine on his property, cut at his sawmill there. Within a few years the house was too small for Clarkson’s family, and an expansion which began in 1900 was complete by 1905. The original two-room house was rotated to face east, moved back from the road, and enlarged to its present two-story configuration. With the exception of the roof and masonry, the house and outbuildings were built by Clarkson, farm laborers, and his two oldest sons. Clarkson quickly established his influence in the community and county. In addition to his success as a farmer, cotton gin operator, and local onto the second floor porch. These doors, which are protected by wood-framed wire screen doors, also have a multi-light transom and sidelights.
NR File Data / SC Dept. of Archives and History
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