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SocietyHill SCPhoto: Evanoco · CC BY-SA 4.0
–Not graded
History · Society Hill

Society Hill’s post office opened in 1818, and 15% of its homes were built before 1940

2 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 250 buildings. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1971 on, and the census since 1930.

1818first post office
2on the National Register
15%homes built before 1940
3old photos & papers
7famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Society Hill’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Society Hill began

When was Society Hill founded?

1818

The Society Hill post office opened in 1818, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 573 in 19302020 census: 438208 years
Founding year: the first Society Hill post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Society Hill’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A historic districtThe Welsh Neck-Long Bluff-Society Hill Historic District takes in 250 historic buildings.A history waiting to be writtenOnly 3 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 848 in 1980; 438 people lived here in 2020.Deep rootsA post office since 1818: 208 years of Society Hill.
★ What stands out · On the National Register

2 listings protect 250 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
2
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
250
each building in a district counts
first listed
1974
Welsh Neck-Long Bluff-Society Hill Historic Dis…
Welsh Neck-Long Bluff-Society Hill Historic DistrictJaponica Hall
BuildingsDistricts

Architectural styles listings

Beaux-Arts Classicism1
American Renaissance1
All 2 listings
Welsh Neck-Long Bluff-Society Hill Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 1974Japonica HallBuilding · listed 1989

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Help out

Start Society Hill’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Society Hill’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewHistoric American Buildings Survey, C.O…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Society Hill, census by census

020040060080019401960198020002020Peak: 848

Peaked at 848 in 1980; 438 people lived here in 2020.

10 censuses, 1930–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Society Hill’s Wikipedia page.

The story

How Society Hill came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Society Hill.

Read it all →

Welsh settlers came to the Society Hill area from Pennsylvania and Delaware in 1736. It was the first settlement in Darlington County. The Welsh settlers were Baptists and named the community after St. David's Society. The town was a center of intellectual life in the Pee Dee region in the 18th and early 19th century. St. David's Society educated leading men like James Lide Coker, founder of Sonoco and Coker University. Its library built in 1812 is the second oldest lending-library in South Carolina. A new library, a branch of the Darlington County Library System, was built in 2011.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Society Hill, 1818 to 1980

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1818Post officeThe Society Hill post office opens
  3. 1836Born hereDavid Gregg McIntosh is born here
  4. 1850Born hereHenry Marshall Furman is born here
  5. 1866Born hereJames McQueen is born here
  6. 1886Born hereJames Harvey Rogers is born here
  7. 20th century
  8. 1940In the archiveHistoric American Buildings Survey, C.O. Greene, Photographer May 27, 1940 MANTEL DETAIL.…
  9. 1971On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  10. 1980CensusPopulation peaks at 848
By decade

Society Hill, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1940s3 items
Historic American Buildings Survey, C.O. Greene, Photographer May 27, 1940 MANTEL DETAIL. - Cedar Grove, Route 2, Socie…1940Historic American Buildings Survey, C.O. Greene, Phot…Historic American Buildings Survey, C.O. Greene, Photographer May 27, 1940 VIEW FROM NORTH. - Cedar Grove, Route 2, Soc…1940Historic American Buildings Survey, C.O. Greene, Phot…Historic American Buildings Survey, C.O. Greene, Photographer May 27, 1940 VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST. - Cedar Grove, Route 2,…1940Historic American Buildings Survey, C.O. Greene, Phot…
1950s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today3 recent
South Carolina National Guard provides tents in support of mobile testing site2020South Carolina National Guard provides tents in suppo…SocietyHill SC2017SocietyHill SCSocietyhill2013Societyhill
On the map

Society Hill on the map, 1971 to 1983

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Society Hill. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Society Hill on the 1971 USGS mapSociety Hill on the 1983 USGS map1971Society Hill sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Society Hill.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Historic American Buildings Survey, C.O. Greene, Photographer May 27, 1940 MANTEL DETAIL. - Cedar Grove, Route 2, Socie…
Retake this viewHistoric American Buildings Survey, C.O. Greene, Photographer May 27, 1940 MANTEL DETAIL. - Cedar Grove, Route 2, Socie…, 1940

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Society Hill’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Famous people

7 famous people were born in Society Hill

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
David Gregg McIntoshConfederate Army officer · b. 1836
Henry Marshall FurmanAmerican judge · b. 1850
James Harvey RogersAmerican economist and educator · b. 1886
James McQueenAmerican steel industry businessperson · b. 1866
P
Pat CrawfordAmerican baseball player · b. 1902
T
Theodore H. Winters Jr.Navy captain · b. 1913

Questions about Society Hill’s history

What year was Society Hill founded?

The Society Hill post office opened in 1818, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Society Hill?

Two places: the Welsh Neck-Long Bluff-Society Hill Historic District (listed 1974) and the Japonica Hall (1989).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.