South Carolina Department of Archives and History
National Register Properties in South Carolina

Brushy Creek, Greenville County (327 Rice St., Greenville)
S1081772305301 S1081772305302 S1081772305303
Facade Right Elevation Portico Detail

(Vardry McBee House; Alexander McBee House) Brushy Creek is an excellent example of a nineteenth century upcountry South Carolina farmhouse with twentieth century alterations and is associated with Vardry McBee (1775-1864), prominent nineteenth century businessman, entrepreneur, and delegate to the Secession Convention of Greenville District known as the “Father of Greenville,” and his son Alexander McBee (1822-1897), prominent nineteenth-century businessman, banker, and state representative of Greenville District. The house was built ca. 1836 as a one-and-one half story frame farmhouse consisting of four downstairs rooms, a wide central hall, two upstairs rooms, four exterior chimneys, and a wooden shingle room. The original kitchen, a separate frame building, stood behind the house. In 1924 the house was expanded with the addition of a one-story frame room between the southwest elevation of the original house and the northeast elevation of the kitchen, incorporating the kitchen into the house itself. Further renovations were made in 1938-39 and 1951. The property also includes three contributing outbuildings: a log barn, a brick shed, and a well house, in addition to the ruins of a grist mill. The yard is landscaped with large English and American boxwoods planted in the 1930s and with brick walls and walks, constructed of bricks salvaged from the Camperdown Cotton Mill in Greenville. Listed in the National Register October 6, 1999.

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