James W. Hamer House
National Register Listing
Street Address:
1253 Harllees Bridge Road (SC Sec Rd. 17-23), Little Rock, SC (Dillon County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817717017
Description and Narrative:
The James W. Hamer House, built in 1910-11, is significant for its association with James Willis Hamer, farmer, state representative, and state senator of Dillon County during its first half-century, and as an outstanding and exuberant example of Neo-Classical Revival residential architecture of the first quarter of the twentieth century, designed by an unknown architect and executed by master builder and craftsman James Edward Diebler. Hamer, a Democrat, was elected to the House of Representatives in 1916, and served two terms in 1917-18 and 1919-1920, then two additional terms in 1925-26 and in 1929-1930. Hamer was elected to the Senate in 1930, and served four consecutive terms from 1931-1938. The house is a large two-story brick-veneered Neo-Classical Revival style residence set upon a rough stuccoed brick foundation and a beveled stone water table. Square in plan, it features four symmetrically-placed exterior end brick chimneys that rise through the boxed cornice, entablature and soffit and tower above the massive hipped roofline to terminate with corbeled caps. The house's exterior consists of dense, highly-refined, red finish brick with thin and precise white mortar joints. The most dominant element of the house's three-bay wide facade is the monumental, Ionic order portico with full entablature and pediment supported by two sets of paired brick columns with cast stone composite bases and plinths. The most unusual characteristics of the monumental columns are the oversized Ionic capitals with exaggerated volutes and the placement of those capitals perpendicularly to the portico's facade. Set within the context of rural farmland, the house is surrounded by a yard that still exhibits some elements of a designed landscape. To the northeast of the house and its several contemporaneous outbuildings, structures, and farm-related ancillary buildings is a mature pecan orchard that was likely planted by ca. 1920. Listed in the National Register September 21, 2007.
Period of Significance:
1910 – 1940;1910 – 1911
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Architecture
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
September 21 2007
