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McLaurin Roper McColl Farmstead

SC PICTURE PROJECT 3 Comments

SC Picture Project / Marlboro County / McLaurin Roper McColl Farmstead

This farmhouse in the Marlboro County community of Clio presents a diversity of architectural styles that reflects the generations that have farmed this land for nearly 200 years. The core of the home was built around 1826 by Daniel C. McLaurin, who described it as “semi-colonial” and incorporated a hewn frame and sills and a Federal-style mantel. At the time, the homestead contained 446 acres that included Carolina bays, two creeks, and a variety of pines and hardwoods. An outbuilding on the property built around the same time as the house is referred to as the smokehouse.

McLaurin Roper McColl Farmstead

Bill Fitzpatrick of Taylors © Do Not Use Without Written Consent

A rotary saw was used to create an addition around 1850, which included a dining room and kitchen that replaced the original kitchen. The style of construction of this addition is known as “saddlebag” and is more utilitarian than ornate. By 1899 the property was owned by the Ropers, who expanded the land to 529 acres and added the Victorian-style tri-gable additions. By the 1920s it was owned by the McColls, who used the Craftsmen style of the day to design their porch. They also planted a pecan orchard, a popular crop during that time that was cultivated to alleviate the loss of cotton after the advent of the boll weevil.

One of the property’s more interesting features in an African-American cemetery on an acre of land between two fields. It is possible that slaves are buried here as well as tenant workers. Sixteen grave markers are placed with burial sites, but depressions in the ground indicate that there could be several more people buried there. Burials on the property continued through the 1960s.

Today the property remains privately owned. Encompassing 367 acres, it is still farmed. The McLaurin-Roper-McColl Farmstead is listed in the National Register, which adds the following:

The McLaurin-Roper-McColl House Farmstead is significant in agriculture because it preserves a relatively intact 500-acre [now 367] landscape that reflects the history of agriculture in Marlboro County from the antebellum period through the 1960s. The house, the early outbuilding, the African American cemetery, the farm roads, and the built landscape features such as the drainage ditches as well as the census and family records detail the history of this representative middle-class farm. These elements define its agricultural products, its owners, and its workers, as well as the vicissitudes of farming in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.

Architecturally the house is significant since it documents an early house type (a four-bay side-gable form of a Coastal Cottage), the construction techniques associated with hewn heart-pine framing and sawn wall boards dating from ca. 1826, and a Federal-style mantel. The kitchen and dining room document 1850s construction. The folk or late Victorian-trimmed Triple-A I-House (1899) addition and its 1920s Craftsman style modifications reflect the taste of a middle-class farming family.

Plan Your Trip: McLaurin Roper McColl Farmstead

Where is McLaurin Roper McColl Farmstead located?
Address: 1104 Laurin Willis Road, Clio, SC 29525
GPS Coordinates: 34.615657,-79.558604
What else should I see?
Bennett-Sistare House 4 miles
Sternberger-Welch-Hamer House 4.1 miles
Henry Bennett-Cheras House 4.1 miles
Edens Opera House 4.1 miles
Show me more like this!
  • See other South Carolina Barns & Farms
  • Clio Historic Sites
  • See other South Carolina Historic Houses
  • See other South Carolina National Register
    McLaurin Roper McColl Farmstead Map

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Amanda M. Mclaurin says

      November 30, 2020 at 2:47 AM

      Daniel C. Mclaurin is my fourth great-grandfather. His son Dudley was my third great-grandfather, Tolbert my second, and Eugene Legette, and so on. I’d love to see the home one day!

      Reply
    2. Stephen Adams says

      December 20, 2019 at 1:58 PM

      Hello, I am a distant family member. My great-grandfather was the McLaurin who lived in this house. My grandfather was William Perry Adams (died 1964). My father is Thomas McLauren Adams.

      I currently live in Boerne,Texas. (210-569-2752)

      Stephen Moore Adams

      Reply
      • J Andrew McColl says

        April 11, 2020 at 10:11 AM

        Daniel C. McLaurin would be your 3rd great-grandfather.

        Respectfully,

        Andy McColl

        Reply

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    ABOUT US

    We are a federally-recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit that works to preserve the history of South Carolina’s historic, natural, and cultural landmarks before they are lost to time. This website serves as a permanent digital archive of over 2,300 South Carolina landmarks – and counting. Learn more about our work.

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