Kershaw County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 65,403. The county seat and largest community is Camden. The county was created in 1791 from parts of Claremont, Lancaster, Fairfield, and Richland counties. It is named for Col. Joseph Kershaw (1727–1791), an early settler and American Revolutionary War patriot.
Camden is the largest city and county seat of Kershaw County, South Carolina. The population was 7,764 in the 2020 census, and the 2022 population estimate is 8,213. It is part of the Columbia, South Carolina, Metropolitan Statistical Area. Camden is the oldest inland city in South Carolina, and home to the Carolina Cup and the National Steeplechase Museum.
Joseph Brevard Kershaw was a prominent South Carolina planter and slaveholder. He was also a lawyer, judge, and a Confederate general in the American Civil War.
Camden station, also known as the Seaboard Air Line Railroad Depot, is a train station in Camden, South Carolina. It serves Amtrak, the national passenger rail service. The station was built by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in 1937. It is located on 1100 West DeKalb Street, although some sources give the address as being at 1060 West DeKalb Street. Either way, it was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. The station is in disrepair, and a renovation project is scheduled to commence in August 2014. The station renovations were completed in early 2016.
Mulberry Plantation, also known as the James and Mary Boykin Chesnut House is a historic plantation at 559 Sumter Highway south of Camden, South Carolina. Declared a National Historic Landmark in 2000, it is significant as the home of American Civil War chronicler Mary Boykin Chesnut, who produced some of the most important written accounts of the war from a Confederate perspective. The main house, built about 1820, is a fine example of Federal period architecture.
The Oakland Plantation House which is also known as Youghall or Youghal Plantation House, was built about 1750 in Charleston County, South Carolina about 7 mi (11 km) east of Mount Pleasant. It is located about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of U.S. Route 17 on Stratton Place. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places on July 13, 1977.
Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site is a national historic district and open-air museum located in Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina, United States. Roughly 40 minutes away from Columbia, the state capitol, it is one of the state's largest tourist attractions. The 107-acre site is also known as Historic Camden Revolutionary War Restoration, and as the British Revolutionary War Fortifications. Camden contains preserved structures and grounds that are representative of the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War. The site is managed by a consortium of private donors and local governments. The area is also an affiliated unit of the National Park Service.
Frogmore is a plantation house on Edisto Island, South Carolina, built by Waccamaw's Dr. Edward Mitchell in approximately 1820 following his marriage to Edisto Island's Elizabeth Baynard.
The McDowell Site, also known as Chesnut Mounds, Taylor Mounds, and Mulberry Plantation House, is a set of historic mounds located near Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina. The McDowell Site is among the first archaeological sites to be carefully excavated and archaeologically reported in the United States. It represents a widespread late prehistoric Indian culture known by the names of Lamar, Irene, and Pee Dee, and possibly extends into protohistoric and historic times. It probably dates between AD 1400 and AD 1700.
The Belmont Neck Site is a historic archaeological site located near Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina. From about 950 to 1300 A.D., the Belmont Neck Site was the location of a platform mound and town associated with the Native American chiefdom of Cofitachequi. It appears to be the first of 12 mound towns along the Catawba/Wateree River. From approximately 1772 to 1796, it was the location of indigo production by Colonel John Chesnut of Camden.
Midfield Plantation, also known as Ellerbe House and Boineau House, was a historic plantation house located near Boykin, Kershaw County, South Carolina. It was built about 1821, and was a two-story, hip roofed, frame dwelling on a high masonry basement. It had rear additions added about 1900. The original kitchen and smokehouse are still on the property as remains.
Cool Springs is a historic home located near Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina. It was built about 1832, and is a two-story Greek Revival style house on a raise brick basement. The original house was remodeled in the 1850s. It features a tiered portico and verandahs, supported by 64 Doric order columns. A two-story kitchen addition was attached to the house about 1935. Also on the property are the contributing two horse stables, a concrete piscatory, an old stone spring, a brick basin, a dam, and granite gate posts.
Zachariah Cantey House, also known as Buckton, is a historic home located near Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina. It was built about 1795, and is a rectangular, 1+1⁄2-story Federal hall and parlor dwelling. It has a hewn-timber braced frame; beaded weatherboard siding; a tall, brick pier foundation and a gable roof. Zachariah Cantey was a prominent local planter, businessman, and politician.
Russell-Heath House is a historic home located near Stoneboro, Kershaw County, South Carolina. It was built about 1830, and renovated about 1906. The main block is a two-story, rectangular structure with a lateral gable roof and a one-story, gable-roof wing. It has clapboard siding and a brick pier foundation. The façade has a projecting Classical Revival portico with four granite pillars. Also on the property are two contributing early-20th century, vertical plank sheds.
Boykin Mill Complex, also known as Mill Tract Plantation, is a national historic district located near Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina. The district encompasses nine contributing buildings, two contributing sites, and four contributing structures. “Boykin Mill” denotes a community which consists of an old post office, an old general store, a c. 1905 grist mill, mill pond, mill dam, gates, and canals. The community also includes an early 19th-century Greek Revival style Baptist church, one mid-19th-century residence, three 20th-century residences built for mill workers, and a smoke house. An American Civil War battle site is also a part of the Boykin Mill community. The Battle of Boykin's Mill took place on April 17, 1865.
City of Camden Historic District is a national historic district located at Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina. The district encompasses 48 contributing buildings, 8 contributing sites, 2 contributing structures, and 3 contributing objects in Camden. The district is mostly residential but also include public buildings, a church, and a cemetery. Camden's architecture is classically inspired and includes examples of Federal, Greek Revival, and Classical Revival, in addition to cottage-type, Georgian, Charleston-type with modifications, and mansion-type houses. Several of the city's buildings were designed by architect Robert Mills. Notable buildings include the Kershaw County Courthouse (1826), U.S. Post Office, Camden Opera House and Clock Tower, Camden Powder Magazine, Trinity United Methodist Church, St. Mary's Catholic Church, Gov. Fletcher House, Greenleaf Villa, The First National Bank of Camden, and the separately listed Bethesda Presbyterian Church and Kendall Mill.
Kendall Mill Historic District is a historic mill complex, mill village, and national historic district located at Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina. The district encompasses 119 contributing buildings, 1 contributing sites, and 1 contributing structure in Camden. The district is centered on the Wateree Plant and associated structures that date from 1899 to 1923. The mill village to the south and southeast of the plant was built between 1900 and ca. 1925 and is a virtually intact reminder of the importance of the textile industry to South Carolina. The mill faces Kendall Park, a ten-acre landscaped park. On the eastern border of the park are the mill supervisors’ houses, built between 1900 and ca. 1925. The operatives house consist of one-story, 1 1/2-story, and a few two-story frame houses which date from 1900 to 1923. The district also includes Kendall Lake, north of the mill. The Dekalb Cotton Mill was organized in 1899. The Dekalb Mill building, designed by W.B. Smith Whaley in the Romanesque Revival style, was considered a model of textile architecture. The original plant building is a four-story rectangular brick building with a back stair tower and an imposing six-story front stair tower. The west addition to the plant, which is in keeping, architecturally, with the older buildings, was constructed in 1964. It is located in the City of Camden Historic District.
J. B. Holman House is a historic home located at Batesburg-Leesville, Lexington County, South Carolina. It was built in 1910, and is an asymmetrical, two-story Queen Anne style frame residence. It features a polygonal, tent roofed turret and wraparound porch. The hipped porch is supported by paired Tuscan order colonettes. The gabled roof is sheet metal shingles and the house is sheathed in aluminum siding.
Charlton Rauch House is a historic home located at Lexington, Lexington County, South Carolina. It was built in 1886, and is a 2+1⁄2-story, frame vernacular Queen Anne style house with an irregular plan and a gable roof. It is sheathed in weatherboard and has a one-story rear wing. the front façade features a one-story, hip roofed porch with a second-story, shed-roofed porch; a two-story polygonal bay; and a hip-roofed, three-story, projecting polygonal bay. Its owner Charlton Rauch operated a livery stable and was a cotton buyer and dealer in general merchandise.
The Thomas B. Finley House, also known as The Oaks, is a historic home located at North Wilkesboro, Wilkes County, North Carolina. It was designed by architect Norma Bonniwell (1877–1961) and built in 1893. It is a two-story, Queen Anne style frame dwelling with a one-story rear ell. It features a hip and gable roof, corner tower, fish-scale-cut wood shingles, and one-story, hip-roofed, wraparound porch. It was built for prominent attorney Thomas B. Finley (1862–1942), whose firm Finley and Hendren occupied the Thomas B. Finley Law Office at Wilkesboro.
