The Historic Seay house is open this Saturday (tomorrow) to the public.
Saturday at The Seay House
August 21, 2010
10:00-4:00
Join us this Saturday at The Seay House, Spartanburg’s oldest home. Located at 106 Darby Road just off Crescent Avenue, this home showcases the dwelling of a local farmstead managed and maintained by three maiden Seay sisters in the late 1800s. Come relax for an hour or two on this historic property! Visit www.spartanburghistory.org, email seayhouse@spartanburghistory.org, or call 864-596-3501 for more information.
The Seay House is open by appointment year-round and on the 3rd Saturday of the summer months except July. Sponsors allow us to open at no charge to the public, though visitor donations help us maintain the property. Special thanks to Linda Bilanchone for sponsoring August’s Saturday at the Seay House. The Seay House is one of 3 historic homes maintained by the Spartanburg County Historical Association.
General Information:
The Seay House is the oldest house in the city limits of Spartanburg. Although a definite construction date for the log portion has not been established, evidence indicates that it was built prior to 1850. Two of the frame additions made to the home in the late 19th century still remain. The oldest portion of the house is a typical Scots-Irish, one room, one-and-a-half story, log house. The logs are hand-hewn, and the foundation is fieldstone. The pipestem chimney, also made of fieldstone, is a style commonly found in Virginia but unusual for upstate South Carolina.
The Seay House is a modest home and reflects the kind of life that the majority of the settlers in Spartanburg County and the Carolina Backcountry lived. Interpretation at the Seay House focuses on the lives of women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This was a farmstead, and the three daughters of Kinsman Seay – Ruthy, Patsy, and Sarah – who lived in this house up to the times of their deaths lived a simple farm life. While today this home is largely surrounded by a modern neighborhood, when you step onto the grounds you can begin to imagine what it must have been like to live without electricity or running water, to grow and raise your own food, and to make your own clothing.
