Smith's Tavern
National Register Listing
Street Address:
E of SC 49, Roebuck, SC city vicinity (Spartanburg County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817742010
Description and Narrative:
Smith’s Tavern, a farmhouse built at the end of the Revolution (ca. 1790), served as a coach stop in the Spartanburg District of South Carolina and was probably a meeting place for farmers living in lower Spartanburg County. The house is significant as a reminder of the era between the Revolution and 1850, when the stagecoach was a key means of transportation in the state. Travel was slow, and many stops were made at inns and taverns before the final destination could be reached. Smith’s Tavern, overlooking the intersection of two eighteenth century roads, is located on what was once a primary route from Columbia to Spartanburg and the North Carolina mountains. It is a two-story clapboard “I-House” with a shed-roof porch at the front and a one-story kitchen addition to the rear. The house has two corbelled gable-end chimneys and a large chimney at the rear of the old kitchen addition. The brick courses in one of the gable-end chimneys are laid in a diamond patterned tapestry, offset by glazed headers. The tapestried chimney is one of few remaining in South Carolina. Listed in the National Register July 23, 1974.
Period of Significance:
circa 1780 – 1790
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Transportation;Architecture
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
July 23 1974
