Tag Archives: Abbeville County

Abbeville Arsenal and Dendy’s Store-Abbeville, South Carolina

This home has a long, varied history in Abbeville that had been lost to history until Tim Drake purchased the home to restore it. To his surprise, he found 1791 etched into one of the beams. This discovery sent him down a rabbit hole where he determined that this building was initially one of three arsenals built in South Carolina during Governor Moultrie’s administration. Located on the town’s square, it was a place to store munitions until 1836.

It was then decommissioned and purchased by Charles Dendy, where it was a store until the 1850s. Sometime in the late 1800s, the building was moved to its current location at the corner of Cherry and Henry M. Turner streets.

Once it was moved, the building served as a private residence.

Abbeville County Training School-Abbeville, South Carolina

Newly added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1922, the Abbeville County Training School was also known as the Branch Street School. The site is overgrown and difficult to photograph because there are storage buildings in front of the school. There are current plans to turn this into housing and a Black History Museum.

Martha Griffin Marker at Brownoh AME Church-Calhoun Falls, South Carolina

The marker of Martha Griffin (1874-1933) utilizes marbles set in concrete for a handmade headstone. Folk art headstones using marbles can frequently be found in rural church cemeteries.