Laurens County · Marker 30-06
Laurens County
Laurens County Courthouse, Courthouse Square, Laurens
Front inscription
Laurens County was one of the six counties created from Ninety-Six District March 12, 1785. The courthouse here, built in 1838 by Dr. John W. Simpson, and remodeled and enlarged in 1858, 1911, 1940, and 1973, was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Three Laurens women, Ann Pamela Cunningham, Dr. Wil Lou Gray, and Dr. Anne A. Young are in the S.C. Hall of Fame.
Laurens Historic District
This historic district, part of a Royal landgrant to John Rodgers in 1774, was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It includes the courthouse square and surrounding commercial buildings and extends north and west into residential areas. In the 1820s Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the U.S., worked as a tailor here. S.C. governors Wm. D. Simpson & Robert A. Cooper were natives of Laurens.