Ridgeway Historic District

National Register Listing

Street Address:

US 21 and SC 34, Ridgeway, SC (Fairfield County)

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NRHP Nomination

Record Number:

S10817720032

Description and Narrative:

The Ridgeway Historic District is significant as an example of a virtually intact turn-of-the-century town whose development was inextricably tied to agricultural prosperity. A majority of the buildings in the district were built between 1890 and 1915, the heyday of cotton production in the area. The community developed in an east-west linear pattern paralleling the Southern Railway tracks, completed in 1850. After a period of economic depression following the Civil War, Ridgeway began to develop as a commercial center serving area farmers. By 1880 there were ten stores located in the commercial district, two stores still survive. The town’s merchants constructed modern new brick stores along Palmer Street and some also built their homes in the residential section adjacent to the central business district. The district contains approximately thirty-one buildings including a commercial block with a predominance of simply ornamented two-story brick stores and a residential block with primarily asymmetrical, frame, weatherboarded houses lining the tree shaded streets. Styles include Queen Anne, Neo-Classical, Victorian, and Bungalow. Also included are a school, the town hall, and the police station. Listed in the National Register November 26, 1980.

Period of Significance:

1890

Level of Significance:

Local

Area of Significance:

Commerce

National Register Determination:

listed

Date of Certification:

November 25 1980

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