South Carolina Department of Archives and History
National Register Properties in South Carolina

Buffalo Mill Historic District, Union County (Buffalo)
S1081774402416 S1081774402417 S1081774402418 S1081774402419 S1081774402420
Mill Village
First Ave.
275 Church St. 302 and
304 Church St.
163 First Ave. 231 Hill St.
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276 Hill St. 19 Main St. 26 Main St. Superintendent's
House
35 Main St.
44 Main St.
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201 Second Ave. 147-A Short St. 107 South St. 308 Westville St.

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The Buffalo Mill Historic District is significant as an excellent collection of historic resources associated with the textile industry in South Carolina from the early-to-mid-twentieth century. The mill complex, including such resources as the main mill, mill office, power house, ice factory, mill warehouse, company store, and company bank/drug store, is a particularly intact collection of early-twentieth century mill and mill-associated buildings. It is also significant for its association with W. B. Smith Whaley, a prominent engineer whose firm designed numerous textile mills in the state, including mills in Camden, Columbia, Lancaster, Orangeburg, and Union. The mill village, including supervisors’ and operatives’ housing as well as auxiliary resources such as a school and a baseball field/park, is a particularly intact collection of other mill-associated resources. The mill complex and village, together with their setting, represent perhaps the best extant example of a South Carolina mill town. The district includes 192 contributing properties and 98 noncontributing properties. The mill building and most other Whaley-designed buildings at Buffalo are typical industrial designs with applied stylized Romanesque Revival detailing. This is achieved primarily through round-headed arches, polychromed brick, and decorative brick work including belt courses and corbelling. A major exception is the mill company office which has a less traditional exterior with its pyramidal roofing, battered pier belvedere, wide bracketed overhang and lavish American Renaissance interior. The mill housing varies from large, free-classic, Queen Anne supervisor’s houses, to shingle-style bungalows, to simple, one-story, lateral-gable, workers residences. Listed in the National Register October 10, 1990.

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