VI. Cultural Resources Element EXISTING CONDITIONS Historic Culture Rock Hill has an abundance of historic and architecturally significant buildings and areas that contribute to the City’s rich cultural heritage. The City has recognized the need for increased historic preservation efforts to ensure that community identity and character are maintained. We are committed to preserving, protecting and enhancing buildings, places and areas that possess particular historic or architectural significance in order to promote the educational, cultural and economic welfare of its residents and visitors. Historical Overview Rock Hill earned its name in 1852, when rail crews constructing a rail line connecting Charlotte, North Carolina to Columbia, South Carolina encountered a small, flinty hill and dubbed the spot “Rock Hill.” Later that year, the first U.S. Post Office in the area was opened. These events are generally recognized as the birth of the City; however, it was not until 1870 that Rock Hill was offically incorporated as a town. In 1892, it was granted a full city charter by the State Legislature. Before Rock Hill was established, the area was inhabited by Catawba Indians, a populous eastern Siouan tribe that built their homes along the waterfront and made their living by hunting, farming and fishing. The earliest known European explorers included Hernando De Soto in 1542 and Juan Padro’s expedition of 1566-1567 in search of Spanish Mexico. It was not until the mid 1700s that the first white settlers, Scots-Irish Presbyterians including some Germans and Welsh, began to populate present-day York County, migrating from Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland via the Great Wagon Road. Population in the area grew steadily over the next centennial as demand for local agriculture and cotton production increased with many settlers relocating from Charleston and other coastal towns, however, the Civil War briefly slowed the area’s rapid expansion. Many residents became casualties of war, though very little military action took place in the area. The area also suffered socially and economically. With the abolition of slavery, large plantations became obsolete, racial tensions grew and few paying jobs were to be had. The first white settlement within the present-day Rock Hill city limits was in the Ebenezer Road area and grew up around the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church which was established in 1785 and originally known as Indian Land Church. The Ebenezer Academy Post Office was established in 1822 and renamed to Ebenezerville in 1837. By the mid 1800s, plans were developed to build the Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad tracks east of the Ebenezer community to appease protests from residents about potential noise, soot, and danger to children. This area became the central business district of Rock Hill. The town of Ebenezer was incorporated in 1893; however, it became a part of the City of Rock Hill in 1960. Spurred by the invention of the steamboat and trend toward regional passenger and freight rail systems, upstate Sourth Carolina towns soon became regional trade centers. Rock Hill’s economic condition drastically improved through the late nineteeth century, as industry shifted from farming to textile manufacturing. Some of the developments that boosted the area’s economy include the introduction of the first steam-powered mill in the state in the late 1880s, the City’s first coal burning electric plant in 1890; the merger of the railroad into a national network to form the Southern Railway in 1894; and the completion of the Catawba Dam and Power Plant in 1904. These technological and economic advancements spurred commerical and residental growth. By 1907, Rock Hill was home to several textile mills, more than 12,000 residents, and three institutes of higher education. Wymojo Mill, circa 1923 Vision 2020: The Comprehensive Plan for Rock Hill VI-4 11/22/2010 VI. Cultural Resources Element Rock Hill continued to experience extensive growth and development in the early twentieth century as area business owners began venturing into other industries besides textile manufacturing. One of the most notable was the Anderson Motor Company, the first automobile manufacturer in the south. While most of the nation faced significant unemployment during the Great Depression, Rock Hill industry and mill owners devised ways to retain employees during these difficult times by reducing wages and increasing production– actions which led to significant labor unrest. Despite the economic instability of the 1930s, progress continued in Rock Hill. Post World War II, manufacturing played a major role in the growth and prosperity of Rock Hill as textile mills, food and lumber production companies grew to more than five thousand employees. Between 1945 and 1950, war veterans returned to the area and began expanding their families. To accommodate this new growth, the City voted to invest $3M to extend infrastructure to the rapidly spreading suburbs. This housing boom marked Rock Hill as the fastest growing city in South Carolina. By the mid 1950s, demand for housing slowed and nearby shopping and employment opportunities drew people away from downtown. Manufacturing plants began to close as demand for textile products declined and the country’s dependence on foreign imports increased. Rock Hill also faced considerable social change as a result of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1954, St. Anne’s Catholic Church’s elementary school became the first integrated school in Rock Hill, though public schools did not become fully integrated until 1970. Sit-ins and a major bus boycott brought national attention to Rock Hill. The 1970s brought even more social change with the city’s first African American lawmaker and councilmen elected since Reconstruction. By the 1970s and 1980s, technological advances brought the closure of most of the prominent textile structures throughout the City, decentralizing and shifting the City’s employment center to the suburbs. Rock Hill became the focus of several urban renewal projects through the 1970s. Plans were developed to transform the City’s core into a more intense, modernized pedestrian shopping mall, but the newly constructed improvments only exacerbated its economic deterioration. By the mid 1980s, Rock Hill lost its textile manufacturing industry and experienced economic decline with the near complete abandonment of its downtown business district. Despite the decline of downtown, Rock Hill as a whole continued to grow through the 1980s and 1990s. Businesses and housing developments emerged as new residents relocated to Rock Hill for its relatively low cost of living and proximity to Charlotte, North Carolina. But, city leaders soon realized that a community-wide strategic plan was needed to address the impacts of growth. Urban sprawl strained city services while the changing economic and demographic character of the City reshaped its identity. In 1988, the City joined forces with other local agencies to prepare a citywide strategic plan called “Empowering the Vision” (ETV). Through the ETV planning process and its 1995 update entitled “Empowering the Community” (ETC), the City collaborated with citizens and stakeholders to develop strategies towards improving the cultural environment, the education system, infrastructure, green spaces, and the City's image in the metropolitan area; promoting economic development; and preserving the City's Main Street, 1895 Main Street, 1920s Main Street, 2008 Vision 2020: The Comprehensive Plan for Rock Hill 11/22/2010 VI-5 VI. Cultural Resources Element history. An evaluation completed at the end of the ten year implementation period in 1999 highlighted the plans’ success through the dozens of major projects implemented by the ETV and ETC sponsors, programs, and forged partnerships. Through the early part of the 2000s, Rock Hill continued to see a boom in housing growth. But, towards the end of the decade, the effects of a national economic crisis began to trickle down locally causing new construction starts to begin to falter. In an effort to restore economic stability and social vitality to the urban core, the City turned to public and The Land Use Element public/private partnership projects to revitalize and stabilize the describes the existing downtown areas, particularly the textile corridor and adjacent land use patterns and neighborhoods hardest hit by the loss of the textile industry. development forms that Initiatives include the restoration, rehabilitation and reuse of form the different existing buildings, new infill housing, restoration and conversion of character areas of the existing textile mills for senior housing, and inclusion of mixed City. uses. It is through the continued investment in Rock Hill’s cultural heritage that the City maintains its identity. Historic Sites and Districts Rock Hill is committed to preserving and protecting structures that represent valuable examples of period architecture and/or represent significant historical events. In August 2004, the City completed an update to the 1988 Historic Resources Survey documenting historic architectural resources in Rock Hill. The updated survey documented all properties that had become 50 years old since the 1988 survey; surveyed properties located in areas annexed into the city limits since 1988; and recorded historic resources located in the Main Street Corridor, but outside the existing Downtown Historic District, including those in the Old White Home, Project of Historic Rock Hill Town Renaissance