1 of Five Forks’ places is on the National Register
More historic than 23% of U.S. towns · #99 of 169 in South Carolina. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Old Pilgrim Baptist Church Cemetery and Kilgore Family Cemetery. Most of Five Forks was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2003. Below: maps from 1938 on and the census since 2000.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Five Forks is more historic than 23% of U.S. towns, #99 of 169 in South Carolina. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Five Forks’ overall grade.
South Carolina towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical South Carolina town has 3.2 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Five Forks’ 0.5 sits near the middle of its state (47% of South Carolina towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share (±1.4 points) is firm at this size.
Founding year: our sources. Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Five Forks’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Five Forks is named for a conflux of five roads, which the Greenville edition of The Post and Courier identifies as Woodruff (the main east–west artery), Batesville, Scuffletown, Bennetts Bridge, and one now called Five Forks Road. The area was still very rural into the early 1990s before rapid growth made it a destination for shopping, restaurants, and entertainment. A 1983 USGS map of the region shows an asterisk- or star-shaped intersection of roads – Woodruff passing through, with Adams Mill, Five Forks, and Scuffletown – before a Woodruff bypass and other realignment changed it.
In April 2019, an EF1 tornado was confirmed to have touched down, beginning in Simpsonville and ending its path in Five Forks.
Five Forks is more historic than 23% of U.S. towns, #99 of 169 in South Carolina. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Five Forks?
One place: the Old Pilgrim Baptist Church Cemetery and Kilgore Family Cemetery (listed 2017).
How old are the homes in Five Forks?
1% of Five Forks’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.4 points), against a typical 3.5% for a South Carolina town; the median home was built in 2003.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
