Whitehall - Historic North Main

Whitehall: source here

The North Main neighborhood dates back to 1813 when the historic Whitehall residence was built facing Rutherford Rd. Built by Henry Middleton on land bought from Elias Earle, the house served as a summer residence until 1820 when it was sold to George W. Earle (nephew of Elias Earle). Henry Middleton was the son of Arthur Middleton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He served as Governor of South Carolina from 1810 to 1812.

 

 

Whitehall has been in the family ever since 1820, twenty years later becoming home to Charles Stone and his wife Eugenia Earle and then in 1880 to their son Eugene E. Stone and his wife Floride Lydia Croft. Streets including Stone and Townes were laid out, but otherwise the area saw little change until the Spanish American War, when in November of 1898 troops began arriving to Camp Wetherill. They didn’t leave until after the end of the war in March of 1899, at which point the 400 acres surrounding Whitehall were platted, divided amongst children of the Stones, and sold, marking the beginning of the development of the North Main neighborhood as we know it today.

 

Whitehall is one of only a handful of houses built in Greenville before 1850 that still stands today; all are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to Whitehall, there is the Fountain Fox Beattie House (1834, now the Greenville Woman’s Club), the Elias Earle Town House (1810) and the Josiah Kilgore House (1838, home to the Greenville Garden Club).