Old Tolbert Rock House, Greenwood, SC
Excerpt from SC Picture Project
Though slaves had been emancipated, the Tolberts were still indignant over the injustices experienced by their black neighbors, particularly the 1895 state law prohibiting blacks from voting. In 1898 John Tolbert and his son, Thomas, encouraged blacks to cast mock ballots in a congressional election. A riot ensued, and Thomas was badly injured. The Tolberts suffered harassment in the years to come and feared even worse.
In 1904 the Tolbert home burned. Though everyone escaped, this event and other subsequent house fires shaped Thomas Tolbert, who used his family land to build a fireproof home in 1926 – Rock House. A simple man who never married, Tolbert lived in the detached kitchen and used the large house to store family heirlooms. While it may sound as though Tolbert lived his later years in isolation, his obituary describes him as follows:
“To his old friends he revealed a character intensely individualistic and yet quite sympathetic with the welfare and interest of those he knew well.”
The Rock House features eight symmetrical rooms on two floors with two fireplaces between them. It once had a spiral staircase in the center, which is now long gone. It is frequently the subject of vandalism, despite being privately owned by Tolbert descendants.
https://www.scpictureproject.org/greenwood-county/rock-house.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_election_riot
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