“One of the most substantial houses in the Springville community.”
White Plains is a square, frame, weatherboard-clad residence with a low-pitched hip roof. The foundation, once brick piers, has been infilled with cement block. The house, which is said to have been constructed ca. 1822, has undergone several periods of significant remodeling. The first, in about 1839, was when Thomas P. Lide purchased the house and the second, in the late 1840s or early 1850s was undertaken with the assistance of a northern architect named J. L. Klickner.
Much of the ornament and character of the building resulted from the latter effort by Klickner. The house was originally L-shaped. Lide enclosed what was a rear piazza and squared the house by adding a central rear hall, with inside stair, connected to one in the front part of the house which shows evidence of being part of the original plan; a long room on the first floor; and a small room above. The resulting plan of the house is four rooms over four rooms with a central hall.
The rooms from one floor to the next, however, are not necessarily of uniform size and shape. The principal facade, southeast elevation, of the house presents a symmetrical handling of the fenestration with five bays on the first story and four on the second.
Formerly,there was a blind window on the center of the second story but it was very badly deteriorated and was subsequently removed. On the first story two French-type windows on each side of the central door open onto the porch; above these windows are two-light transoms. The single-leaf central door has two parallel vertical lights on the upper half and two smaller recessed bottom panels below the lock rail. Above the door is a semicircular fanlight capped by a low-pitched, peaked architrave. At one time there was a two-story porch, but this was replaced during one of the nineteenth century remodelings by a one-story, hipped-roof porch which spans the facade and wraps around both side elevations (the northeast elevation has three bays and the southwest elevation five bays). The hipped roof is supported by square posts and has a boxed cornice with paired brackets. The balustrade, the same design that occurs at two other Springville, properties, the John M. Lide House and the John W. Lide House (see inventory forms), features arcaded, small square balusters and U-shaped top rail. The second story of the facade has paired nine-over-nine, double-hung sash windows and a broad freize with paired Italianate brackets supporting a boxed cornice. The roof has a square arcaded balustrade widow’s walk at its apex; a glassed cupola was removed in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Twin massive interior chimneys of a Greek cross design bracket the widow’s walk. The northeast chimney was moved to its present position when the northeast rooms were added. The side elevations have nine-over-nine, double-hung
sash windows on both stories. The southwest elevation contains five bays of the wraparound porch which culminates in a one-story appendage; the fifth porch bay opens onto the facade porch. The fenestration of this elevation is symmetrically arranged with four nine-over-nine, double-hung sash windows on each story. The northeast elevation differs somewhat in that the northeast first floor room extends to the full depth of the porch and has two smaller nine-over-nine windows. The other two windows of the first story and the four second story windows are the same as the other side elevation.
The rear elevation has a full-width, one-story appendage with a small hip-roofed, central appendage above it at the level of the interior stair landing. Paired nine-over-nine, double-hung sash windows bracket this small appendage. The interior features paneled wainscoting with graining in five of the six original rooms (the exception is the southwest first floor room which has a one-piece pine board wainscoting) and hall, carved plaster cornices, and flushboard ceilings. The stairhall and entrance hall are of different widths; this reflects the addition of the northeast rooms. A dog-leg stair with a bathroom addition at the landing dominates the rear hall. At the point that the front hall adjoins the stairhall is a flat arch with a peaked intrados supported by pilasters. There are three outbuildings in the immediate vicinity of the house. One of these, a single-pen log crib with gable roof, is probably antebellum; the other two buildings are of modern construction.
SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANCE
White Plains, also known as the Thomas P. Lide House, is one of the most substantial homes in Springville and is the only remaining building of that community west of Black Creek. This house is said to have been built about 1822 by Isaiah DuBose at which time it was a two-story, L-shaped building of three rooms per story.2
Thomas P. Lide purchased the property around 1839 at which time he evidently began an extensive remodeling program that continued into the 1850s.3 Thomas Lide was one of the most active and involved members of the Springville community. He was not only community oriented, perennial president of the Darlington Agricultural Society and incorporator of the Springville Academy, but offered his talents in service to the state as well. He was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1862-1864 and of the South Carolina Senate, 1864-1865. He also was a trustee of Furman University and director of the Cheraw and Darlington Rail road.4
FOOTNOTES
(1) A northern architect named J. L. Klickner was employed in the Darlington area before the Civil War and worked for a number of the region’s prominant families. Ervin, Par!ingtoniana, p. 349.
(2) Ibid. p. 412.
(3) Ibid., p. 413; Coker, “Springville,” pp. 209-210; Deed Book N., pp. 325-26, Darlington County Courthouse.
(4) Emily B. Reynolds and Joan R. Faunt, Biographical Directory of the Senate of the State of South Carolina, 1776-1964 (Columbia, S. C.: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 1964), pp. 60, 257-258.
From the application for the National Historic Register.
Share this:
Don’t miss the chance to participate in some really fun and educational events.
No responses yet