Welsh Neck Baptist Parsonage

This elegant Victorian home in Society Hill was built in 1855 as the parsonage for Welsh Neck Baptist Church.

Bill Segars of Hartsville, 2012 © Do Not Use Without Written Consent

The church was established in 1738 on its original location along the Great Pee Dee River. After the Welsh Neck settlement – comprised of Welsh Baptists who relocated to the Pee Dee from Delaware in the 1730s – and its church moved to higher ground in the area now called Society Hill, the church built three more structures on the current site. The final and present church was constructed in 1938.

The Welsh Neck Baptist Church Parsonage is listed in the National Register as part of the Welsh Neck-Long Bluff-Society Hill Historic District:

The Welsh Neck-Long Bluff-Society Hill area is one rich in historic significance. The Welsh Neck community was an early religious center (a ca. 1738 Baptist church was established here) for the Pee Dee region, and Long Bluff served as a judicial center. The courthouse at Long Bluff, with its jail, tavern, and supporting buildings, was a center of activity for the Upper Pee Dee region during the Revolution. Few small communities have contributed more to the public in the way of culture, education and leadership than has Society Hill. It has numbered among its population outstanding leaders in religion and education, jurists, statesmen, soldiers, authors, and agriculturists. The Society Hill Library Society was formed in 1822. This group grew out of the St. David’s Society, founded 1777 in Cheraw, which had a wide-spread influence and was a main factor in making Society Hill a center of intelligent leadership in the Pee Dee for a century and a half.

This is a rural community with many fine antebellum homes in the Georgian mode. Constructed on large lots or in wooden settings, many are two-storied clapboard structures with one-story front verandas. Nineteenth century mercantile establishments still operate in unadorned frame buildings of a purely functional design. Within the entire district there are approximately 250 structures. Welsh Neck and Long Bluff, both now unoccupied wooded areas, are considered excellent potential archaeological sites.