Historic house on Swamp Rabbit Trail in Travelers Rest added to registry – Greenville News

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The Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail in Travelers Rest has a new distinction.

Travelers Rest leaders and others have long credited theSwamp Rabbit Trail for transforming the town from a place where people passed through to one where many desiretostop to eat, shop, workand live.

The city's portion of the 22-mile county-wide multi-use trail now has the only Greenville County designated historic site adjacent to it,according to Kyle Campbell, owner of Preservation South, LLC,an Upstate-based consultant firm that has aided in the restoration of historic homes and buildings throughout South Carolina and Georgia.

The former Spring Park Inn, which was placed on the Greenville County Historic Register last month, also isthe only historic house withinthe Travelers Rest city limits, according to Mayor Brandy Amidon.

The former inn is now known as the Anderson House. It's in the heart of downtown Travelers RestonOld Buncombe Road. It'sowned by Nell Anderson Gibson whose grandfather and father were born there.

The Anderson House, formerly the Spring Park Inn, in Travelers Rest(Photo: Angelia Davis/STAFF)

Anderson Gibson moved there with her parents and brother in the days when the Swamp Rabbit Trail was the railroad trackon which she walked to Travelers Rest High School.

Anderson Gibsonrecalls having lots of friends who enjoyed visiting her homebut said she never thought it would beof interest to anyone else because of its age.

As she got older, Anderson Gibson said her parents expressed their desire to havethe home on the National Register. They worked hard to make it happen but were unsuccessful.

She remembers telling them that "if it were possible, after they were gone, Iwould do my best to see if it could materialize."

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"Theyhad a lot of information about it but, of course, theinformation they had couldnt be verified because there was no such things as computers, the kinds of things you use today to prove that you knew what you were talking about," Anderson said.

"Fortunately, as the years went by,the historical society was interested," Anderson said. "They were able to prove the information that we had gathered through the years."

Travelers Rest acquired its name, in part, because of the Spring Park Inn. Trains and stage coaches would stop there on their way to and from the mountains and the coast.

Amidondescribed the former inn as "a place withhuge historic significanceof people comingto our city to rest, relax and be a part of a community."

"The main significance is that we are able to preserve, forever, a home that is the cornerstone of our entire city," Amidon said in an email.

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The Anderson Housewas added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.

Originally built as a private residence in the early 1800s, the former inn is atwo-story five-bay frame building, with an exposed end chimney and a full width front porch, according to adescription and narrative posted on the S.C. Historic Properties Record web page.

The house was a "place of respite" from 1852 to 1941," according to a Greenville County resolution.

It began as an outpost for the development of Travelers Rest and served as "the primary hub for the community in the early 20th century," the resolution said.

Historian Judith Bainbridge said, in an archived Greenville News column, that theSwamp Rabbit Railroad, officially the Carolina, Knoxville and Western, made the Anderson House,"a setting for popular outings and political meetings."

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The road where the Spring Park Inn was located, was so named because it was the road to Buncombe County, North Carolina and was part of the extended transportation network that connected Lowcountry planters with the resort communities in the western Carolinas, the web page said.

The Anderson House, formerly the Spring Park Inn, is now on the national and Greenville County historic registers(Photo: Angelia Davis/STAFF)

Later, rail service brought visitors to the Spring Park Inn.

Then owner Robert Anderson conveyed one and a half acres of land in front of his home for the construction of a railroad platform for loading and unloading passengers and freight in 1889. This meant that rail passengers arriving in Travelers Rest were literally delivered to Andersons door, the web page said.

The former innremains on its original site facing east toward Paris Mountain, the web page said.

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The Swamp Rabbit Trail in front of the house traces the route of the former rail line and beyond it is the original route of Buncombe Road, now Main Street, the web page said.

Near its front doors of the house hang two plaques noting its placement on historic registers for visitors, and for Anderson Gibson, the desire of her parents fulfilled.

"I was very pleased when it actually happened," she said.

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Historic house on Swamp Rabbit Trail in Travelers Rest added to registry - Greenville News