Florence County · Marker 21-15
Hewn-Timber Cabins
E. Palmetto St. /Christopher James Yahnis Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 301/76) at Wallace Woods Rd., on the Francis Marion University Campus, Mars Bluff
Front inscription
The African Americans who built the two hewn-timber cabins that stand 200 yds. S on Wallace Woods Road were brought to Mars Bluff as slaves in 1836. They lived in these cabins on the cotton plantation of J. Eli Gregg, in what was then Marion District. These cabins are the last two of eight that originally stood in a cotton field at what is now the center of the university campus.
Reverse inscription
The cabins, built of 4”x9” hand-hewn timbers, feature precise full-dovetail joints and pine plank floors. They were enlarged after the Civil War. Freedmen and later tenant farmers lived in these houses until the 1950s. Relocated several times, one cabin was moved to this site in 1980, the other in 1990. They were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.