Earle R. Taylor House and Peach Packing Shed
National Register Listing
Street Address:
1001 Locust Hill Rd., Greer, SC (Greenville County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817723073
Description and Narrative:
The Earle R. Taylor House and Peach Packing Shed are significant for their association with the early development of peach growing in Greer, South Carolina, and for their architecture which includes an excellent example of the work of local architect Thomas Keating and a rare example of an intact upstate peach packing shed. The Taylor family was one of the first in the area to plant and grow peaches. By 1898, Earle Taylor’s father, James Pashcal Taylor had moved to Greer and was the first man to plant 500 peach trees in the area. Earle Taylor started his peach operation in 1917 and was shipping peaches to northern markets in 1920 by rail. At its peak, the 900 acre farm had 30,000 peach and apple trees on 300 acres, cotton fields and about 100 head of Angus cattle. The two-story brick house is significant as an example of a Colonial Revival house built in 1939 and designed by Keating. The main house sits on a small hill with a rolling pasture to the east. To the rear of the house is a contributing frame garage (1949). A busy highway separates the house from the ca. 1925 peach packing shed and a ca. 1935 office. The packing shed sits on a triangular parcel of land with a small asphalt parking lot. It is an open wood-framed two story gable-front building with one story shed-roofed wings on each side, wood siding, a metal roof, and a block foundation. Once the peaches were picked in the fields and loaded into bins they were then transported to the packing shed for processing. Listed in the National Register June 27, 2012.
Period of Significance:
circa 1925 – 1962;circa 1925;circa 1935;circa 1939
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Agriculture;Architecture
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
June 27 2012
