Williams House

Front: This house was built for the family of William White Williams (1787-1845), a planter and S.C. legislator for Barnwell District (1830-1831). The core of the house may date to 1824, by which time the family lived at this site. In the 1830s, Williams provided a portion of his surrounding land for the construction of the S.C. Railroad, which led to the development of the town of Aiken (est. 1835). The house is believed to be among the oldest in Aiken and was known as “The Homestead.” Reverse: The Williams House was part of a cotton plantation that encompassed several hundred acres, with a family burial ground (2/10 mi. SE) and dwellings for the enslaved people who worked the property. In Feb. 1865, the plantation was one of several downtown locations where Union and Confederate troops skirmished during the Civil War. In 1926, Pa.-native John W. Converse acquired the house and made major alterations, turning it into a winter residence with the name “Chinaberry.”