Griffin-Christopher House
National Register Listing
Street Address:
208 Ann Street, Pickens, SC (Pickens County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817739009
Description and Narrative:
The Griffin-Christopher House, built in 1887, is significant as an example of Folk Victorian architecture from the 1880s. It is a two-story, three-bay, side-gabled, frame, Folk Victorian I-house with a two-story rear wing creating and L-shaped plan. The two-tiered full-height front and side porches with generous amounts of jig-saw cut wood trim are its defining features, and most clearly characterize this house as Folk Victorian. The site, and traditionally the house, is most closely associated with the family of Elihu Holby Griffin, Sr. (1801-1874) and his son John Calhoun Griffin (1851-1890). Elihu H. Griffin, Sr. is notable for the sale of 94 acres of his considerable land holdings in Pickens District to the State in 1868. The acreage was used to create a portion of the county seat for the newly created Pickens County. Upon the death of his father John C. Griffin, a successful merchant and mill owner in Pickens County, lived in the house with his widowed mother and under whose ownership the Folk Victorian features of the house were added. The house was purchased by Newton A. Christopher in 1920 and has remained in his family for three generations. Listed in the National Register October 21, 2001.
Period of Significance:
1887 – 1930
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Architecture
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
October 21 2001
