Hampton County · Marker 25-15
Bank of Hampton
15 Elm St. E., Hampton
Front inscription
The Bank of Hampton, built in 1892, was the first bank organized in Hampton and an important part of the rapid growth and development of the county seat from the 1890s to the mid-1920s. It was designed by Vincent Joseph Fontaine, a French-born architect who moved to S.C. after the Civil War. This two-story building, with its raised brickwork, segmental arches, and stepped parapet, is a good example of the Italianate influence in commercial buildings of the period.
Reverse inscription
This building housed the Bank of Hampton on the first floor and law offices on the second floor for more than thirty years. Though the bank closed in 1926, the second floor housed law offices into the 1960s. The building was donated to the Town of Hampton in 1987, and a town museum opened here in 1989. Now home of the Hampton Museum & Visitors’ Center, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.