Unknown
Historic Property
Alternate Name:
Counts-Free House
Street Address:
607 E. Railroad Avenue, Bamberg, SC
Site Number:
S108042001400253
Site Number:
52
Date Surveyed:
August 3 1979
Category:
Building
Construction Date:
circa 1900
Historic Use:
Residential/Domestic
Current Use:
Residential/Domestic
Construction Method:
frame
Foundation Materials:
Brick
Roof Materials:
shingle
Signficant Architectural Features:
1 1/2 story clapboard house, irregular in plan, with gable roof and 4 Interior chimneys. Front: is divided into 5 bays, AABAA, and has a central doorway flanked by narrow 3-pane sidelights. The design of the front porch gives the building a predominantly horizontal appearance. This porch has a low hip roof, which is supported by heavy brick piers, and which features a gable over the entrance and projecting eaves with exposed rafters; it extends across the front facade and projects out from the main body of the building on the right (E.) side to form a porte-cochere. The front slope of the roof is broken by 2 small gabled dormers.
Historical Information:
Colonel Thomas Jefferson Counts5 who owned considerable lands in Bamberg, built this house after his 2-story home burned January 31, 1900. Counts served as senator from the Barnwell District, was appointed as colonel of 43rd Regiment, S. C. Militia, and was judge advocate on the staff of General John E. Tobin. He was a planter and merchant. In 1906, Colonel Counts sold this house to C. B. Free. Free’s daughter, Catherine Free Rhoad Brabham now owns the home. Her late husband, P. Eugene Brabham, was elected from the county to the S. C. House of Representatives and also to the S. C. Senate. The Brabhams were owner/publishers of the county newspaper, The Bamberg Herald.
Source of Historical Information:
"East Railroad Avenue, Bamberg, S. C.";Margaret Lawrence, 111 Felder Street. Bamberg, S. C.
Survey:
Bamberg - City, 1979-1980
Archives Location:
Box 14, Series 108042, Survey of historic resources (county by county data on surface properties), circa 1971-2014
