Cherokee County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 55,342. The county seat is Gaffney. The county was formed in 1897 from parts of York, Union, and Spartanburg Counties. It was named for the Cherokee people who historically occupied this area prior to European encounter.
Gaffney is a town in and the seat of Cherokee County, South Carolina, United States, in the Upstate region of South Carolina. Gaffney is known as the "Peach Capital of South Carolina". The population was 12,539 at the 2010 census, with an estimated population of 12,609 in 2019. It is the principal city of the Gaffney, South Carolina, Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Cherokee County and which is further included in the greater Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, South Carolina Combined Statistical Area.
Winnie Davis Hall, built in 1904, is an historic redbrick college building on the campus of Limestone College in Gaffney, South Carolina. It was designed by Darlington native William Augustus Edwards, who designed academic buildings at 12 institutions of higher learning as well as 13 courthouses and numerous other buildings in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. It was named for Varina "Winnie" Anne Davis, the daughter of Jefferson Davis and was built to serve as a repository for American Civil War papers as a center for the study of Southern history. On April 29, 1977, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It is part of the Limestone Springs Historic District and is also known as the Winnie Davis Hall of History.
Archeological Site 38CK1, also known as the Upton Site, is a historic archaeological site located near Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina. The site contains well preserved examples of a specialized soapstone procurement site occupied primarily during the prehistoric, Late Archaic Period. The site is divided into two major areas and the quarry exhibits both historic and prehistoric utilization.
Archeological Site 38CK44, also known as Locus 1, is a historic archaeological site located near Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina. The site contains well preserved examples of a specialized soapstone procurement site occupied primarily during the prehistoric, Late Archaic Period.
Archeological Site 38CK45, also known as Locus 2, is a historic archaeological site located near Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina. The site contains well preserved examples of a specialized soapstone procurement site occupied primarily during the prehistoric, Late Archaic Period.
Coopersville Ironworks Site (38CK2) and Susan Furnace Site (38CK67), also known as the Cherokee Ford Ironworks Site and Nesbitt Iron Manufacturing Co., is a historic archaeological site located near Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina. The site includes the foundations of four large factory buildings, with a system of canal/sluiceways between them, and the remains of three iron furnaces. The outlying furnace, Susan Furnace, includes foundations, sluiceways, slag heaps, and adjacent ore pits. The complex is the largest and best preserved factory complex of any of the 19th century iron manufacturing companies of the region. The complex was developed between 1835 and 1843 by the Nesbitt Iron Manufacturing Company, the largest iron company in South Carolina. The Nesbitt Company was dissolved in the late 1840s, and the Swedish Iron Manufacturing Company of South Carolina operated the ironworks from 1850 until the American Civil War.
Ellen Furnace Site (38CK68) is a historic archaeological site located near Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina. The site includes a partially collapsed but well-preserved iron furnace constructed about 1838 of quarried stone and two earthen sluiceways. Also present are building foundations, tramway road beds, and ore mines. It is directly associated with the nearby Susan Furnace Site. Both were outlying furnace operations associated with the manufacturing complex at Coopersville owned by the Nesbitt Company and later the Swedish Ironworks. The Coopersville Ironworks along with the Susan and Ellen Furnaces were developed between 1835 and 1843 by the Nesbitt Iron Manufacturing Company, the largest iron company in South Carolina. The Nesbitt Company was dissolved in the late 1840s, and the Swedish Iron Manufacturing Company of South Carolina operated the ironworks from 1850 until the American Civil War.
King's Creek Furnace Site (38CK71) is a historic archaeological site located near Kings Creek, Cherokee County, South Carolina, United States. The site contains a partially collapsed but well-preserved iron furnace built about 1838, retaining walls, sluiceway, stone dam abutments, stone building foundations, large piles of slag, and a large slag levee along the creek bank. It also includes the remains of the site's log frame dam. King's Creek Furnace Site is one of two remaining sites that can be associated with the King's Mountain Iron Company, a major iron manufacturing company that operated in present-day Cherokee County from about 1815 to about 1860. The other site is Jackson's Furnace Site in York County.
Nesbitt's Limestone Quarry (38CK69) is a historic archaeological site located near Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina. The site includes the most extensive and best preserved limestone quarry associated with early iron production in the northwestern Piedmont of South Carolina. It was the primary source of limestone for the region's ironworks. Quarrying activity at Nesbitt's ceased in the early part of the 20th century. The site covers approximately 30 acres and has exposed vertical faces of limestone and is located in a large body of limestone that extend in a linear fashion from Limestone College to across the South Carolina state line.
Carnegie Free Library is a historic Carnegie library building located at Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina. It was built in 1913–1914, and is a one-story over raised basement, rectangular red brick Classical Revival style building. It has a gently pitched standing seam metal roof and a brick parapet. In 1937, it was doubled in size by a rear addition. It is one of 14 public libraries built in South Carolina between 1903 and 1916 with funding from Andrew Carnegie and the Carnegie Foundation, and was Gaffney's first public library.
Settlemyer House, also known as the Bailey House, is a historic home located at Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina. It was built in 1922, and consists of a large two-story central block with one-story wings. It features a low gable roof with flared rafter tails and a porte-cochere with flared eaves and large random course stone and concrete piers. It is an example of the Japanese influenced Bungalow design, in the American Craftsman tradition, of the early 1920s. Also on the property is an original two-story frame garage and a random course stone and concrete wall in front of the house.
Jefferies House, also known as the Jolly House, is a historic home located at Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina. It was built in 1884, and is a two-story, frame, Italianate style dwelling. It is asymmetrical and features a large one-story porch on the main façade and a two-tiered porch on the right elevation. Also on the main façade is a one-story square bay window with decorative brackets. It is one of the oldest and most significant residences remaining in Gaffney.
Nuckolls-Jefferies House, also known as the Nuckolls House and Wagstop Plantation, is a historic plantation house located near Pacolet, Cherokee County, South Carolina. It was built in 1843, with alterations in the 1870s or 1880s. It is a 2+1⁄2-story, frame residence in a combined Greek Revival / Classical Revival style. It is clad in weatherboard and sits on a stone foundation. The front facade features a two-tiered central, pedimented portico supported by two sets of slender wooden posts. The rear of the house has a two-story ell, built during the 1996 restoration. Also on the property are three contributing outbuildings: a small, one-story log gable-front building that dates from the mid-to-late 19th century that served as the farm's smokehouse, a 1+1⁄2-story gable-front frame barn, and another frame gable-front barn with side shed lean-to extensions.
The Zeno Hicks House, also known as the McKinney-Hicks Homeplace, is a historic home and national historic district near Chesnee, South Carolina. The district encompasses one contributing building and one contributing structure. The house, built in 1886, is a two-story rectangular frame I-house built of weatherboard and hand sawn from heart pine. The house has a one-story rear addition and a one-story porch with shed roof, and extends around the façade. The property also includes a corn crib. It is associated with Zeno Hicks, a prominent local folk doctor and musician of Cherokee County. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Irene Mill Finishing Plant, also known as the Cherokee Finishing Company, is a historic factory building located at Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina, United States of America. The building was constructed in 1915–1916, and is a large, rectangular, one-story brick building with a gable roof with exposed support beams. Also on the property are two small, square brick structures with pyramidal roofs covered with pressed metal shingles. The mill produced damask which was shipped to New England for finishing. In the finishing plant the cloth was washed, soaked, boiled, bleached, and calendered, enabling the mill to produce finished damask products.
Gaffney Commercial Historic District national historic district located at Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina. The district encompasses 41 contributing building in the central business district of Gaffney. Most of the buildings were built after 1900 and before 1930 and are primarily commercial buildings in vernacular commercial interpretations of the Italianate, Romanesque Revival, Renaissance Revival, Art Deco, and Neoclassical styles. All of the buildings are of brick construction and vary from one to four stories in height. The downtown area, which continues to be a center of Gaffney commerce, retains much of its early 20th century character.
Gaffney Residential Historic District national historic district located at Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina. The district encompasses 111 contributing building in a primarily residential area of Gaffney. The majority of the buildings were built between about 1890 and about 1930, and consist of houses sited on large urban lots and oriented towards wide, tree-lined streets. Homes are generally of frame or brick construction with fine examples of the Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Neoclassical, Victorian and Bungalow styles as well as traditional vernacular forms. Included in the district are homes of textile mill executives, merchants, and other professionals who lived in Gaffney during its boom period at the turn of the 20th century.
Gaffney Residential Historic District national historic district located at Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina. The district encompasses nine contributing building and 1 contributing structure in Gaffney. The focal point of the district is the historic section of Limestone College campus. The campus includes the nine buildings constructed between about 1837 and 1941. The buildings on the campus are oriented towards a central lawn and fountain. The buildings are classically inspired and include architectural styles such as Gothic Revival and Neoclassical and also a meeting house form church. Also included in the district is a limestone quarry that was mined in the 19th and early-20th century and a mid-19th century church building. The limestone quarry is located adjacent to the historic section of the campus and the Limestone Springs Baptist Church is adjacent to the quarry. Notable buildings include the separately listed Winnie Davis Hall and Limestone Springs Hotel.
Shiloh Presbyterian Church Cemetery is a historic Presbyterian cemetery located near Grover, in Cleveland County, North Carolina and Cherokee County, South Carolina. It was established in 1780 in conjunction with the construction of the Shiloh Meeting House. Revolutionary War hero William Patterson, who died on October 5, 1780, the day of the Battle of Kings Mountain, and was the first person interred at the cemetery. The cemetery is the oldest burying ground in the southeast section of Cleveland County, North Carolina. It includes a number of notable gravestones carved from greenish schist and soapstone dating from 1780s to the 1820s. The cemetery includes 104 gravestones in the North Carolina section of the property, and four gravestones in the South Carolina section.
