Overview | Location and Hours | Offerings
Price House - Offerings
Visitors to Price House will receive a guided tour of the home and learn about Thomas and his wife Ann, early entrepreneurs of Spartanburg County. Picnic tables are available if visitors want to enjoy lunch on this beautiful site. There are several opportunities each year for extended tours and programming that include the kitchen and slave cabin, including Taste of the Backcountry in April and Autumn Fun in October. There are also special tours for Christmas in early December.Want to know more?
Price was an entrepreneur who was licensed to sell spirituous liquors and to keep a house of publick entertainment, meaning that he could provide food, drink, and lodging to stagecoach travelers passing through the area. Here they could experience the Southern hospitality of what could be called an early "bed and breakfast." The visitors would register and then sleep in dormitory style on the third floor. Men slept in a small room on one side of the central hall, women on the other. In an adjoining building, the boarders would be fed before their journey continued.Price also operated a store located next to his house where general merchandise, food staples, wine, rum and whiskey were sold. In addition, he was the postmaster and the local mail could be picked up at the store from either Price or his storekeeper, George.
The Prices lived a successful life financially, though they were not blessed with children. They did, however, have a number of nephews and nieces. Price had at least one sister, Patsey Price, who married General Thomas Moore, son of Charles and Mary Moore who built Walnut Grove Plantation.
Thomas Price died in 1820; his wife the following year. They had accumulated a number of material possessions, enough to fill 42 pages when inventoried at Ann's death. The inventory contained a thorough listing of all the objects in the house, store, and on the Plantation. This inventory was found in the Office of the Spartanburg County Probate Judge and has been a guide in furnishing the house with items of the period. Interestingly, the Prices' house was the only household in the county prior to 1820 that had carpets and curtains. This significantly shows the status and taste of the couple.
Ann Price's inventory and the results of an archaeological dig at the site, which found the foundations of two flanker buildings on either side of the main house, were invaluable in the restoration.
