Cornwell Inn
National Register Listing
Street Address:
Jct. of US 321 and SC 205, Blackstock, SC (Chester County)
Alternate Name:
Cornwell's; the Inn at Cornwell
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817712016
Description and Narrative:
(Cornwell’s) The ca. 1841 Cornwell Inn was built by Elijah Cornwell on property he acquired in October of that year. “The Inn” is unique in a multitude of ways in spite of a plain exterior appearance. South Carolina has few surviving buildings with the direct link to antebellum period transportation, especially one in a rural location. The Cornwell Inn is one of South Carolina’s surviving early stagecoach stops on a main state road, the Charlotte to Charleston Road. It is also connected with the Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad, one of the nation’s earliest regional rail lines. The ca. 1841 original portion of the Federal style inn (the northern half of the building) is a one-and-one-half story, five bay double pitched gable roof, heavy-timber frame and weatherboard building set on granite piers, and has two exterior end chimneys with free standing chimney stacks. The ten-foot deep, full length porches on both the west and east elevations were probably part of the original building plan. Soon after the original portion was completed, an addition with a full basement was added to the south elevation of the inn. This one-and-one-half story, five bay, double-pitch gable roofed, frame provided additional living space in the full basement, probably for the domestic servants necessary for the operation of an inn. Listed in the National Register February 18, 1994.
Period of Significance:
1841;1851;1942;1841 – 1942
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Architecture
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
February 18 1994
