Its Register listing is the Hattie J. Peeples House. Its Register listing is the Hattie J. Peeples House. Below: maps from 1918 on and the census since 1890.
Founding year: the first Varnville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Varnville’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Varnville is more historic than 50% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Varnville’s 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 Varnville’s 11.7 sits above most of its state (66% of South Carolina towns have fewer) while its 3 historic buildings outnumber those of 65% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.7 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). 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 Varnville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Varnville was founded by the Varn Brothers, who sold the right-of-way for railroad tracks through their sawmill in 1872, prior to Hampton County's founding. In 1878, Hampton County was created from Beaufort County, and the site for the county seat was located 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Varnville, eventually becoming the town of Hampton. Varnville grew as a result of its close proximity to the county seat as well as its connections with surrounding agricultural areas. In 1993, several scenes from the film Forrest Gump were shot in Varnville, of which some were used to create the fictional town of Greenbow, Alabama.
The Hattie J. Peeples House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
The Varnville post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Varnville rank for history?
Varnville is more historic than 50% of U.S. towns. 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 Varnville?
One place: the Hattie J. Peeples House (listed 1992).
How old are the homes in Varnville?
10% of Varnville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.7 points), against a typical 3.5% for a South Carolina town; the median home was built in 1975.
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 Wikidata (1), 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.
