Pelzer Community Building
National Register Listing
Street Address:
30 Pelzer Park Street, Pelzer, SC (Anderson County)
Alternate Name:
Pelzer Skating Rink, Pelzer Community House, Pelzer Senior Citizens Center
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817704027
Description and Narrative:
The Pelzer Community Building was a company-built social space for use by the employee-residents of the Pelzer Manufacturing Company textile mill village. The building sits in the southern portion of Monkey Park. Originally constructed as an open-air roller-skating rink by 1908, the pavilion was later enclosed c. 1924 as its function shifted towards a community meeting space. The community building is a single-story wood frame building with a rectangular footprint set on a brick pier foundation infilled with concrete block. The exterior features half-timbered beadboard walls with corner angle braces, wood sash windows, and a hipped metal roof. The open interior boasts a large maple floor, intended for skating. During the textile manufacturing boom of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, the mill village model allowed for the mill company to become intertwined with every facet of their employees’ lives. Manufacturing concerns constructed churches, schools, meeting spaces, and recreational facilities for their workers. The former roller-skating rink became the de facto community meeting space in 1937 after a fire destroyed the town’s original community building. The Pelzer Community Building acted not only as a meeting space for civic organizations, family reunions, church events, and political rallies, but also as an extension of the mill, as a space for company banquets and mill safety club meetings. In 1975, Kendall Mills sold the building to the Town of Pelzer, ending the building’s association with the local history of mill paternalism. Listed in the National Register September 24, 2025.
Period of Significance:
1937 – 1975
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Social History
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
September 24 2025
