Walnut Grove Plantation’s guided tours and living history activities tell the stories of the free and enslaved people who settled South Carolina’s Backcountry and the rest of Britain’s American colonies, who fought for independence, and who, in the end, built a new nation.
SPECIAL NOTICE: Walnut Grove Manor House is currently under restoration. Full-guided Tours are still available.
Guided Tour Only: $3 per student
Guided Tour with Living History Activity: $6 per student
Adult chaperones, $5 each; School employees, FREE
Groups of 10 to 100 students.
Picnic shelter and child-friendly gift shop on site.
Walnut Grove Plantation recounts how free and enslaved people settled the South Carolina Backcountry, fought for independence, and built a new nation.
Charles & Mary Moore established the plantation c. 1767. They raised ten children in the house they built and lived in for 40 years. Mr. Moore relied on a dozen enslaved African Americans and his own large family to work his sizable farm. During the Revolutionary War, the Moores, including daughter Margaret Barry, supported the Patriot cause. Local militia mustered at Walnut Grove prior to the Battle of Cowpens. Loyalist William “Bloody Bill” Cunningham raided the plantation in November 1781 and killed a Patriot soldier sheltered by the Moores.
In addition to the home and outlying buildings, visitors can also view the property’s cemetery and walk our nature trail, or enjoy a picnic at the pavilion.
Want to learn more? Dive into our History@Home videos.
Did your ancestors live at Walnut Grove Plantation? Join our Descendants Newsletter.
As stewards of Walnut Grove Plantation, the Spartanburg County Historical Association has recognized the immediate need for restorative efforts to preserve this historic site for future generations.
With the professional leadership of Preservation South, LLC, SCHA has announced a multi-phase restoration project that addresses:
- The immediate structural needs of Walnut Grove Plantation’s Manor House
- Corrective revisions to the property supporting historical accuracy
- Interpretive enhancements to expand the story of the Revolutionary Wae era, the Upstate of South Carolina, and the Moores and the enslaved.
GOAL: $350,000
This restoration preserves the exterior and surrounding landscape of Walnut Grove Plantation. Interior restoration will be planned after these most immediate needs have been met.
This restoration preserves the exterior and surrounding landscape of Walnut Grove Plantation. Interior restoration will be planned after these most immediate needs have been met.
A schedule of the restorative work of Walnut Grove is proposed as follows:
Phase 1:
Structural stabilization, replace roofing, porch decking replacement, siding and chimney repair and painting.
Phase 2:
Window and door repair and correction, hardware repair and correction, manor house landscaping beautification.
Phase 3:
Surrounding landscape beautification, vegetable and herb garden relocation.
Price House guided tours and living history activities tell how free and enslaved residents transformed the frontier Backcountry into the antebellum Upcountry through improved roads and communications, more non-farm businesses, and an explosion in cotton farming and slave labor.
SPECIAL NOTICE: *Price House is closed until further notice*
Guided Tour Only: $3 per child
Guided Tour with Living History Activity: $5 per child
Adult chaperones, $5 each; School employees, FREE
Groups of 10 to 60 children; maximum group total of 70 children & adults
Picnic area on site.
Price House offers guided tours of the site’s 200-year-old buildings. Regular programs, often featuring reenactors portraying people of the time, examine the history of the Early Republic as well as the natural history of the Upstate.
Thomas Price, one of Spartanburg County’s earliest entrepreneurs, sold general merchandise, food staples, wine, rum and whiskey in a store located next to his house. As postmaster for the area, he also operated the local post office inside the store. Area residents could pick up needed supplies from Price or his storekeeper, George, while sending or receiving mail. A map of the county from 1821 even lists the location of Price House as “Price’s P.O.” or post office. In addition to the store and post office, Price also kept a “house of publick entertainment” (tavern and inn) that provided food, drink, and lodging to travelers passing by on the road in front of the house. Travelers slept dormitory-style on the third floor.
Mr. Price was also a significant landowner with 2,000 acres to his name. He raised cattle, sheep, pigs, corn, and, most importantly, cotton. As was common throughout the South, the cotton and corn farming of Price and others who farmed the property after him caused significant soil erosion that over the years resulted in a deep gulley near the house.
Running the tavern, general store, post office, and plantation required a great deal of labor. Enslaved African Americans did most of the work that made the Prices’ businesses and farm thrive. Little is known about the African American men, women, and children who lived at Price House, but Mr. Price probably owned some slaves when he arrived. A bill of sale indicates that in 1794, the same year he purchased his first parcel of land, he also purchased a woman named Phillis and a child named Harry. When Price died in 1820, he owned twenty-four enslaved people. Though not original to the property, the site exhibits a typical upcountry slave cabin. Moved to the site from Newberry County in 2005, it is a “double pen” cabin that housed two families in two rooms separated by a central fireplace.
In 1968, Price House and its surrounding acreage were given to the Historical Association. Following a four-year restoration effort, the site opened to the public.
Want to learn more? Dive into our History@Home videos.
The Seay House shares the stories of women in the late 1800s through the lens of three Seay sisters who lived in the home and ran their self-sufficient farm. The Seay House is believed to be the oldest house inside the city limits of Spartanburg. Evidence indicates that it was built prior to 1850.
Guided Tour Only: $3 per child
Guided Tour with Living History Activity: $5 per child
Adult chaperones, $5 each; School employees, FREE
Maximum group total of 40 children & adults
Picnic area on site.
This site was originally known as the “Jammie Seay House” when it was acquired by the Association. However, when more in-depth research was conducted, it became known simply as the Seay House. The earliest individual who can be directly tied to the house is not James (Jammie) Seay, but rather Kinsman Seay, the eldest son of Jammie Seay. Kinsman was born on September 17, 1784, and died February 1, 1883. There is documentation that indicates Kinsman and his descendants were associated with this house until about 1969.
James Seay, born in Virginia in 1750 and a Revolutionary War soldier, migrated to South Carolina. The first land transaction bearing his name was in 1784 when he received a grant of 200 acres near Fairforest Creek. Jammie Seay died in 1843, aged 93, and was buried at St. Timothy’s Chapel in what is now the Arkwright Community. He was accorded the full military honors due a patriot veteran of the Revolution.
Although court records are sketchy, a newspaper obituary suggests that at one time Jammie Seay owned as much as 500 acres of land south and west of the Spartanburg Courthouse. In his old age, there is the possibility that he divided the tract among his children and lived with his son, Kinsman, in the Seay House. Although the home place was certainly modest, Kinsman Seay was respected in the village and a founder of Central Methodist Church. As late as the 1890’s Kinsman’s unmarried daughters still lived in the house and maintained the family ties to Central Methodist Church.
Want to learn more? Dive into our History@Home videos.
Did your ancestors live at Walnut Grove Plantation? Join our Descendants Newsletter.