The Real Estate Blog

This morning, we listened to Mayor Doug Echols speak about what the city of Rock Hill has in store over the next couple of years.  Some of his comments opened my eyes to some trivia that I had never heard before about the area. So here are a few fun tidbits of information about York County that I hope you'll enjoy:

• Rock Hill earned its name in 1852 when the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railroad were being built through the area. Rail crews encountered a small, flinty hill and named the spot “Rock Hill.” A post office was established in April of that year and the city was incorporated in 1892.
• The first street in Rock Hill was Main Street.
• The second street was Church Street, named because a Methodist church was to be built on it. St. John’s Methodist was the first church built in the City of Rock Hill (Ebenezer Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church was really in Ebenezerville), and eventually Church Street became Black Street.
• The first fire department in Rock Hill (you know I had to add this one!) was organized in 1869 and was named the Rock Hill Hook and Ladder Company with 35 members.  The station was on Caldwell Street and housed a small wagon with leather buckets attached to either side. 
• Some of the actors who have graced our county with their presence in the last decade, while filming a move include Julia Stiles, Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Dana Delaney, Gerald McRaney, and Gwyneth Paltrow.
• Fort Mill is named for a colonial-era fort built by the British and a grist mill on nearby Steele Creek. The Catawba Indians made their home here for many years. Scotch-Irish settlers began arriving in the 1750's and 1760's and a small settlement soon developed. Fort Mill grew rapidly in the late 1800's as textile mills were established.
• Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Cabinet passed through the area in their flight for Richmond in 1865. The last meeting of the full Confederate Cabinet was held at the White Homestead in Fort Mill.
• The U.S. Department of the Interior granted York one of the largest historic districts in the country.

• Clover was first referred to as Clover Patch back in 1870. That's when the area that is now the town was the site of a 5,000-gallon water tank that was used to serve the steam engines of the nearby railroad. Legend has it that water often spilled from the tank, causing a patch of clover to grow.

Thank you to the City of Rock Hill & Town of Fort Mill websites for some of the historical info.