This Queen Anne Victorian was built in the mid-1880s. Meyer Wachtel was a dry goods merchant who moved to the United States from Germany. His son, Manning, stayed in Chester after his parents passed away and became a dry goods merchant. I was not able to confirm if he took over a family business.
The church was founded in 1847.
The adjacent Black Rock Baptist Church was founded in 1874. By 1884, the church was educating Black schoolchildren. A one room schoolhouse was built around the turn of the century. It was used until 1957 when school consolidation began.
This cemetery is located near the entrance to the Landsford Canal State Park. It used to be a part of a Mount Zion Church in Landsford, South Carolina.
The cemetery is not in the best condition. It is surrounded by a stone wall, and the ground is covered with vegetation. According to news stories, the cemetery has faced recent vandalism. From what I could tell, this destruction happened to the headstones closest to the road. This is a critically important cemetery because of the type and age of markers.
