Cherrydale Alumni House
Item
- Title
- Date Created
- Description
- Institution: City, State
- Learn More About this Subject
- Identifier
- Type
- Extent
- depicts
- Language
- Creator
- Date Modified
- Temporal Coverage
- Table Of Contents
-
Cherrydale Alumni House
-
1852
-
Between 1852 and 1857, George Washington Green constructed Cherrydale Mansion as a one-story farmhouse at the foot of Piney Mountain in Greenville, South Carolina. In 1857, the house and property were sold to James Clement Furman. Furman was a Baptist clergyman who served as Furman University’s first president from 1859 to 1979. Furman’s wife, Mary Glen Davis Furman, remodeled the home by adding a porch and four additional rooms. During the 1860s, the house was the center of an 867.5-acre plantation that grew corn, cotton, peaches, apples, and cherries. The selling of these goods funded Furman University during the Civil War.
When Furman died in 1891, the ownership passed to his wife who died in 1911. In 1939, daughter Mamie Smith Furman sold the home to Eugene E. Stone III, a textile manufacturer. Stone intended to demolish the building and establish a clothing manufacturing plant. Stone and his wife, Allene Wyman, decided to renovate the home and donate it to Furman University in 1999. Between March 7-9, the home was transported three miles to Furman’s campus. This undertaking included the removal of electrical lines across a four-lane highway. Cherrydale was dedicated as Furman’s alum house on October 23, 1999.
On June 17, 1976, Cherrydale was added to the National Register of Historic Places. However, on December 8, 2005, it was removed from the list.
Today, Cherrydale Alumni House is a vibrant and beautiful venue for gatherings of up to 100 for Furman University’s friends, family, and colleagues.
-
Memorial Structure
-
Named Building
-
A 4,960 square-foot, two-story building, with eleven rooms, eight fireplaces, and five bathrooms.
-
For over 150 years, this structure was located on the current site of the Cherrydale Point shopping center. From 1857 through the end of the Civil War, the home was the center of an 867.5-acre plantation owned by Furman University’s first president, James C. Furman. Abraham, Clark, Joanna, Jethro, Mary, Pharis, Primus, Richard, Sylvia, and Toney were some of the approximately 50 enslaved people who were compelled to live and work at Cherrydale. After the war, the Furmans remained here, and some of the family’s former enslaved laborers, including Abraham Sims, continued to work for them.
President Furman died in the home in 1891 and it was passed to his wife and eventually their children. In 1939, Eugene E. Stone III, founder of Stone Manufacturing, purchased the home. The Stone family and Cherrydale Point developer AIG Baker gifted it to Furman University, and in 1999, over the course of two days, the home was transported to this site.
-
Culpepper, Ashlynne
-
7 March 1999
Position: 782 (8 views)
