Mount Hebron Temperance Hall
National Register Listing
Street Address:
3041 Leaphart Rd., West Columbia, SC (Lexington County)
Alternate Name:
Division Room of the Saludavill Division No. 47, Sons of Temperance; Division Room of the Mt. Hebron Division No. 7, Sons of Temperance
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817732013
Description and Narrative:
Local tradition and contemporary records indicate that the Mount Hebron Temperance Hall was constructed in 1862 as a meeting room for members of the local temperance group. Located in West Columbia, it is the only identified building constructed specifically for use as a temperance meeting hall remaining in Lexington County. It is associated with the long and generally unsuccessful state and national temperance movement of the nineteenth century. Interest in temperance in South Carolina increased as the nineteenth century progressed. In 1829 the first statewide temperance society was organized, and by 1847 the South Carolina division of the national organization known as the Sons of Temperance had been chartered. In South Carolina local societies were formed as subdivisions of the state organization. One such group formed in the neighborhood of the Mount Hebron Methodist Church. A charter was issued to the Saludavill Division No. 47 by the national division in December 1858. Although many of the members of the temperance society were also members of Mount Hebron Methodist Church, the division did not meet in the church building. The hall is a small, one-story rectangular structure sheathed in weatherboard, with a gabled cypress shingle roof. It stands in the churchyard of the Mount Hebron United Methodist Church. The interior has a single room with wide board flooring and flushboard walls and ceiling. There is no plumbing or wiring. Eventually the church has taken over the temperance hall for use as a Sunday School building and Boy Scout Hut. The building was restored in 1979. Listed in the National Register November 24, 1980.
Period of Significance:
1862
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Social History
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
November 24 1980
