The Cedar Springs Historic District is comprised of three buildings – Cedar Springs Church, Stagecoach Inn, and the Frazier-Pressley House, shown here.
The district straddles both Abbeville and Greenwood counties and is found at the junction of Abbeville County Road 33, Greenwood County Road 112, and Greenwood County Road 47.
As part of the Cedar Springs Historic District, the Frazier-Pressley House is listed in the National Register. It is described as follows:
The Frazier-Pressley House is a three-story, stuccoed brick building, believed to have been constructed as a residence for Captain James W. Frazier in 1852-1856. The building is composed of three octagonal sections connected by a hallway that circumscribes the central three-story octagon with a three-story portico defining the facade (south elevation) and a two-story stuccoed brick ell at the rear.
The portico of the Frazier-Pressley House features four three-story brick pillars with pilaster responds at the junctures with the house. The brick is laid on a diagonal bias, with vertical channeling resulting. The capitals of the pillars are cubical with recessed brickwork creating stepped diamond panels. A veranda is carried by the pillars at each level.
According the local tradition Captain James Frazier constructed his three-story brick plantation home between 1852 and 1856. in 1875 Frazier’s daughter Tallulah and her husband, Dr. Joseph Lowry Pressley, acquired the house. Dr. Pressley had served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army, rising to the rank of major. After his discharge he continued to serve the people of the Cedar Springs community as a doctor and teacher of medicine and dentistry. The central room on the third floor of the house served as his office.
The two-story gable-roofed log building adjacent the the Frazier-Pressley House was probably built c. 1820. Local tradition holds that the building was a stagecoach stop and inn on the road from August, Georgia, to Abbeville and Edgefield. It is likely that the stopping place was established in this location because of the community already developed around the Cedar Springs Church.
The Frazier-Pressley House is exceptional in that it is built around three octagons. These three octagonal elements are connected by a hallway circumscribing the central octagonal core of the house by a massive three-story portico, whose three tiers of porches are reached by seven entrances, all with transoms and sidelights. The composition and plan of the Frazier-Pressley House are believed to be unique in the United States.
Reflections on the Frazier-Pressley House
Many thanks to Bill Fitzpatrick of Taylors for sending us the following photo of the Frazier-Pressley House. Bill enjoys the singular distinction of being the only person ever to have visited all 1,400 South Carolina landmarks listed in the National Register. He has published several helpful e-books which serve as invaluable travel guides to the Palmetto State.
Of all the landmarks Bill has visited, the Frazier-Pressley House is one of his favorites. He explains, “I have special fondness for Cedar Springs, for it turned out to be the reason I did all of this. A fellow at a local camera shop was talking about the incredible, three-tiered, eight-sided abandoned plantation home about an hour or so south of Greenville. He knew it used to be on the border of the Cherokee Nation, so with no more information than that, I eventually found it. Only, and happily, as you can see, it is in the process of being improved. I never violated the privacy rights of homeowners, so like all other historic home shots, I took this one from the street.”
Cedar Springs Historic District Info
Address: Junction of Abbeville County Road 33, Greenwood County Road 112, and Greenwood County Road 47, Abbeville, SC 29620
GPS Coordinates: 34.081986,-82.302289
Cedar Springs Historic District Map
Take Me There
I would like to know if anyone has any information on the enslaved families that lived on this planation. I was told my great-grandmother. Lula Frazier-Hackett, lived there as a child. Please, if anyone has a ledger or a record of what slaves were owned by the Frazier-Pressley family, I am building my family tree and would like information which is hard to locate. Thank you, Kimberley Smith, Elk Grove, California
I was a student at Clemson College (now Clemson University) in 1963 when I first saw this magnificent home. Often we would drive from North Augusta to Clemson (through Abbeville) and take this very rural route. On my many trips from 1963-69 while I was a student, we would always want to stop and explore it, and it never appeared to be lived-in. One of my fellow horticultural students who was from nearby McCormick, SC, said that his parents were given a tour of the home years before and that it had a grand ballroom on the second floor.
The old Cedar Springs Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church is within eye-shot of the mansion and contains a number of graves of the Hearst family. William Randolph Hearst migrated from here to California in the mid 1800s where he found his fortune. There are a number of record-setting Redwood trees in Abbeville which I surmise are grown from seed that the Hearst family sent back from California. As a horticulturist, this is fascinating to me. I actually have a rooted cutting grown from one of these trees planted at my nursery near North Augusta.
The National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol 106, No3, Sept 2018 contains a detailed article about the Frazier Pressley families of Cedar Springs and their extended families including details of one of the slave families, e.g. Violet & son Hiram (surname Cochran) owned by Charity Frazier (circa 1853), Mother of James W. Frazier. Charity and son James W. Frazier may have been the first occupants of this home.
Thank you so much for letting us know, we will try to track this down!
I am a descendant of James Frazier. My ancestors originally owned what is known as the Frazier-Pressley Plantation. We’ve been trying to locate and get in touch with the California family that purchased the land to discuss the land. The man of the house WILL NOT speak to anyone, but I have a copy of the will of my great x5 grandfather and a copy of Pastor Sloan who he sold 3/4 of the land to when things got rough. My family was wealthy and now I’m trying to complete what my maternal grandmother started and recoup the land of her great grandfather. Please help.
The first time I saw this magnificent piece of history was spring of 1994. The grass was higher than I was tall, so I had to ride on the back of the person I was with that was 6’3! I was amazed by the history, freaked out by the state it was in at the time which having a creative mind can reck havoc lol! I was mostly saddened to see such history being left to fall down and then going inside to see beer can and bottles and trash where it appeared parties or something had taken place.
The South lost so much due to the war, and then to see that it was as if no one even cared to preserve what things we do still have left. I have some pictures from that day and once I locate them I will post. I know that sometime after that someone was trying to restore it. Through the years since then I have searched and searched trying to find out about the house, but nothing!
I haven’t had a chance to return there to see how it looks now, but I am hoping to make a special trip just to see it once again! I live about an hour and a half away from it in Walhalla, SC.
This morning I had the house on my mind again, and once again I set out determined that today – Monday July 2, 2018 – I would find out something about this magnificent piece of history from a time in history that is no more and will never be again. I found it! I even found out that information told to us back in 1994 by the gentleman living in the old stage coach stop house was all exactly true!
Then I read your message, and I truly hope that you will find a way to get this magnificent mansion back to its family. I know it won’t be easy. Where there is a will there is a way. I wish you all the very best, and may God bless you. What a piece of Hertiage to know belonged to your family.
Moneca,
Do you know any information about enslaved people who may have worked for the Presslys?
I’m wondering if there’s a connection to my 3x great grandmother who was a Pressly and in the 1880 census was listed as being a farm laborer in Cedar Springs.
Hi! My Aunt Cheryl used to live there when I was a kid. I have tons of info if you’d like to email me! 🙂
Hey Tina, we followed up via email, thank you!
I worked with the man, at a factory, who purchased it and he was working on it when I moved away from SC in 2006. I have no idea if he still owns it but he did allow me a brief peek. His plans were very ambitious and I hope he succeeded.
We hope so too, such a magnificent home!
Would love to get more information about this house including its availability.
I first saw this home in the 1980s. I received permission from a lady living about a mile down the road to enter the house. I do not remember her name. She stated the door was unlocked and I could go in. I did take pictures of the inside. In the foyer it had two stairways – one on the left and one on the right. In one of the front rooms there was a Confederate flag hanging over the fireplace. Water had leaked on it and what was left of it was adhered to the wall. At this time I saw no signs of restorations.
Gonna ckeck with Greenwood County about some aerial drone shots.
Please. Is there any way I could see inside this house and surrounding buildings? You are missing a wonderful opportunity to make money to preserve this beautiful piece of history.
Hi, Dianne. We agree that the house is beautiful. However, it is privately owned, and we are not affiliated with it in any way, though we too would love to see the inside!
Someone purchased the home around 2000 and attempted to restore it in order to turn it into a bed and breakfast, but their money ran out. In the late 60s it was vine-covered. Because it is so out of the way, it would most likely not make much money as a bed and breakfast. Also, someone would have to pay me to sleep in this creepy place! The uniqueness of this home is all the materials had to be shipped more than 10 miles over muddy back roads.
Thank you for the great information, Len!
I would like to know who I would need to speak with to get to see this home. I was raised in the area and never got to see the inside. Any info on who to speak with to be able to visit this home would be nice.
Hi, Brandie. The home is privately owned, though we do not know the owner. It is a beautiful house!
Does anyone own this home now? I was raised in that area and never got to see the inside of this home. I really would love to tour this home, any info to be able to see it would be nice!
There are more than 68 extant octagon houses in North America (Canada and schoolhouses, many converted to residences, included). I documented 500 for my book “Octagon House Inventory.” The book includes photos and the histories of over 1,000 known to have been built.
Mark, thanks for posting the information on the octagon homes … Bill
Orson Squire Fowler’s 1848 book The Octagon House, A Home for All, served as the inspiration for homes of octagon shape during the pre-Civil War period. Similar, but less ornate homes were built up through the early 1900s. The most notable is the still unfinished Longwood plantation in Natchez, MS. The Zelotes Holmes House in Laurens is the only other one in SC. A complete list of the 68 octagon homes still remaining can be found on Wikipedia.