Ch. 1: An abundance of history
One of our favorite projects to date has been the nomination for the Fennell House in Old Town Rock Hill, SC to National Register Of Historic Places. The layers of history that were revealed in the process of this project were exciting, and carried so many stories, that by the end of creating a nomination for this home, it felt like we could truly see back into the past and experience the different eras that this home had moved through.
Beginning life as the residence of a notable doctor, spending some time as a convent, a boarding house, and a frat house, this historic home had seen a lot of living. The homeowner knew that he needed someone with a passion for these types of homes in order to craft a winning nomination, but he didn’t know where to turn. So when he posted on social media asking for help and was directed to LFE Preservation, we were delighted to be connected with the homeowner, and excited to tackle this project.
We first made contact with the homeowner in October of 2021, and worked closely with him over the next six months to document the house and create a winning nomination, which we presented in July of 2022. Sometimes these nominations can take over a year to assemble, but this one moved swiftly, thanks to this home’s wealth of documentation and historical records.
Ch. 2: Meet The Fennell House
Anyone who has driven past the Fennell House in Old Town Rock Hill has surely noticed it, as it is one of the most impressive homes in the entire Old Town area. The Fennell house has a very striking look as it sits atop a hill, opposite a scenic park. At over 6k square feet, this home is also one of the largest in the area.
The current homeowner first bought the house in 1997-1998, and was enamored with the home’s beautiful architecture, sprawling rooms, and deep history. The homeowner is carpenter by trade, who specializes in stairs, so the architectural details of the home jumped out at him immediately. However, at the time he purchased the home it had been condemned, and was slated for demolition. Being someone with a very specific set of carpentry skills and a lot of patience, he decided to undertake a DIY restoration of the house to bring back its former majesty and protect its legacy.
It would be an understatement to say that he was very dedicated to house. Over the next 2 ½ decades, he would painstakingly work to restore the house in his spare time. He knew a lot about the history of the house, and wanted that history to be captured, documented and passed on. Getting the house listed on the National Register of Historic Places was less of a concern than the overall goal of preserving its history.
Dr. William Wallace Fennell, via FreedomWalkway.com
Ch. 3: Civic Origins, Dr. Fennell
A huge part of the home’s history is tied up with it’s original owner, Dr. William Wallace Fennell. Dr. Fennell was nationally known, and was educated at the school that is now MUSC. He did graduate work at Belleview Hospital in NY, and had other residencies at The Mayo Clinic and in Europe. Dr. Fennell was well known as great surgeon, to the point where people traveled from all over South Carolina and North Carolina to receive his care. Arriving in Rock Hill, he tried to take over another hospital in town, but was unable to make it a public hospital. So instead Dr. Fennell began his own hospital.
When his home was built it was next to Fennell Infirmary, where public housing now stands (demolished in the 1960s). Dr. Fennell built his home at this location to be near the infirmary and better-serve his patients. Fennell infirmary was a massive, top on the line, state-of-the-art hospital for its day. The infirmary was expanded several times, and for several decades it even served as the main hospital in Rock Hill (1910-1940), and also had nurse training school/program.
Dr. Fennell is remembered for his great generosity and wealth of spirit. It was widely known that he treated many people pro-bono. And although the hospital did have separate entrances for black and white people, he enthusiastically treated black patients, and taught black nurses in the non-black nursing school. This is even more significant considering that the nursing school was one of less than twenty such schools in the country during its time (1920s).
The Fennell House has been in the process of restoration since losing much of its original glory in the latter part of the 20th century.
Always thinking of his patients, Dr. Fennell initially chose the location for his infirmary because it was pastoral, and seemed to be conducive to healing. Additionally, it was near train depot, and so it became a destination for sick people who could travel by train to reach the Fennell Infirmary.
Ch. 4: Many Past Lives
After Dr. Fennell passed away, his partner took over hospital. In the 1930s, Oratorian priests and brothers arrived in Rock Hill, beginning the history of The Oratory. When Fennell Infirmary came up for sale The Oratory purchased the infirmary, and operated it as St. Philip’s Mercy Hospital. The Franciscan Sisters of Peoria were invited to Rock Hill by The Oratory, and proceeded to operate the hospital for the next 15 years.
Eventually the nuns moved into The Fennell House, and established it as convent. They set up the dining room as their chapel and placed many religious statues throughout the property and grounds. Around this time period, the white house across the street became a children’s ward, so this entire block was providing healthcare to the residents of the Rock Hill area.
As time went on the infirmary was expanded many times to meet the demands of its patients, but eventually the state hospital standards board found the infirmary did not meet modern standards. A much larger and more modern hospital had also been built around 1940 after The New Deal. As a result of the economic realities facing the country in the wake of the Great Depression, federal funding had taken the place of community funding, and the new hospital had attracted all of that funding as the government didn’t want to pay for two hospitals in a small town like Rock Hill. The Franciscan Sisters of Peoria advocated to get funding from the city of Rock Hill to upfit the infirmary and meet the code requirements, but ultimately no one was motivated enough to make it happen, and the hospital closed its doors.
But a home such as this one would not remain vacant for long. It was soon turned into Hill’s Boarding House, and was occupied by employees of the nearby Catawba Nuclear Station. Next, it became official student housing for Winthrop University, and was called Confederate Hall. From Winthrop’s student newspaper, The Johnsonian, we have records of ads for students to move in to the house, and there is some chance that it was a coed living area. This time period also saw some of the biggest exterior alterations: the balustrade on 2nd story porch was removed, “majestic oaks” in front yard were cut down, and vinyl siding was added, among other things.
Once the house stopped being student housing in the late 1980s, it became a home for unwed mothers for very short amount of time called “The Lord’s Family Tree”, then the home fell into disrepair and went through a dark time. It was occupied by squatters, and was known as a site for drug activity and other malfeasant activities. Eventually the infirmary was torn down, and this beautiful and massive house on the hill was left vacant and run-down.
The current owner had some knowledge of the history behind the house, and after he purchased the house with the intention of fixing it up, he was moved by the history that had taken place on this plot of land. The history of Dr. Fennell especially, made the owner even more determined to “do right” by the house and restore it to its former glory, and around this time he began to think about the potential of having the home listed on the National Register Of Historic Places (NRHP).
Ch. 5: Honoring the Legacy of Dr. Fennell
The way that nominations to the NRHP are created can vary based on a number of factors. Some places are listed simply because a significant event took place there, or others are listed because of their architectural significance. Although this nomination could have been written for either of those first two scenarios, the South Carolina state office for the NRHP felt that this nomination would be strongest under category A, which is based on a place’s association with a person of significance, that person being Dr. William Wallave Fennell.
Dr. Fennell participated in many professional associations, donated land to create parks, and helped spur the creation of a public park right next to his home and the infirmary. When the Medical University of South Carolina transitioned from being a private school to a public institution, Dr. Fennell became president of board of trustees and would confer degrees at graduation ceremonies.
Near the end of his life Dr. Fennell was aggressively pursuing cancer research, which was unusual for this time period, as most people didn’t even talk about cancer at this time. Even those who were afflicted with cancer would often hide this fact from the people in their lives. Ever ahead of his time, Dr. Fennell was giving lectures at Winthrop University about breast cancer to women, was participating in the American Cancer Care Society, and pursuing less-invasive treatments for cancer. Tragically, he was set to present his research on cancer care and prevention to tri-state medical society when he suffered a massive stroke. Dr. Fennell lived for two more years, but had to step back from his practice, and never fully recovered.
Although the Fennell House went through many other stages of life after it was the home of Dr. Fennell, the house will always be associated with his legacy.
While the current owner of the Fennell house already knew a lot about the home, he did not have a lot of documentation or historical information to give us as we were crafting the nomination. But he was highly motivated, and had personally advocated for house for a long time to prevent it being destroyed by the city. The homeowner had also nominated Dr. Fennell for inclusion in the Freedom Walkway in Rock Hill, and had championed Dr Fennell’s legacy in a number of ways.
In order to document and better-understand the layout of the home, the homeowner commissioned basic floorplans of house, and then in turn Lauren Fowler-Ellis (our principle) was able to use these floorplans in the nomination. Any successful nomination to the NRHP typically includes floorplans of the structures being nominated.
Thanks to the history of the Fennell Infirmary, Lauren was able to use the history of the infirmary to unravel more history of the home. The local significance of the infirmary and its impact on the people in the community were well-documented, and Dr. Fennell’s own history was included in some of that documentation. The arc of Lauren’s research was similar to her nomination for the Sturgis house, making extensive use of many newspapers, digital archives, medical periodicals (tri-state medical assoc.), and required taking lots of photos.
The home’s architect and builder are still unknown. Our theory is that the Fennell House may have been designed by Nat Gaillard Walker, which is exciting because he was the architect of LFE Preservation’s last nomination to the NRHP. The homes share some woodworking details, and were built within a year of one another. However, we may never be able to confirm that Nat Gaillard Walker was involved with the Fennell House.
Ch. 6: Crafting a Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places
Appearing before the South Carolina State Board of Review, Lauren defended the nomination to a panel of historic preservation experts from across the state. The process includes a good deal of feedback before this stage, so by the time the nomination is being presented, we usually have a good idea that it will be accepted, and this case was no different. The board gave positive feedback on the nomination as well as Lauren’s presentation, and the nomination was approved!
After this stage, we still needed to wait around 30 days to give the state office time to further polish the approved nomination before submission to the National Parks Service (NPS), who manages the National Register of Historic Places. Once the NPS received the nomination, they take another 45 days to review and decide on approval for the nomination.
Six months of work creating the nomination, and several months waiting to hear back brought us to January of 2023, when the nomination was finally approved, and the Fennell House was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places.
This home and its history were extremely interesting and will always have a special place in the fabric of Rock Hill, SC. It was an honor to have been part of the nomination process, and to get to delve into the history of this beautiful home and its rich history. The current homeowner of the Fennell Home has been working for decades to ensure that the legacy of this home is known and protected, and being added to the NRHP is a huge step in helping to ensure that the homeowner’s vision becomes reality.
Finally, we provided the homeowner with a Dropbox archive of all of our digital research materials for the project, and any future uses that may arise. These historical documents can help tell the story of this home for generations to come, and will help new people to discover the history of the Fennell House without having to do all of the same research. In the end, making history accessible to people is one of the best things about this job.
Ch. 7: Nominated and Listed
It’s not about the biggest home or flashiest architecture, but about the people who occupied these places. I like documenting histories of people who lived their lives here. I find it to be A worthy thing to do.
– Lauren Fowler Ellis, Principal – LFE Preservation