The Spare Tire

By Beth Yarbrough

Have you ever met a house that lived its life as a spare tire? You have now. The Parish House, as it is commonly known, has held many positions since it was built sometime just prior to the 1830's in the village of Pineville, South Carolina.

Pineville is a village was largely abandoned due to a local plague of illness in the 1830's and the villagers never returned in full force.

This house originally sat in Pineville, but even from the beginning, it was only a summer home. Dr. William Porcher built it in Pineville for that reason. Due to the plague, however, the house was dismantled and moved to nearby Eutawville, where it stands today.

The house settled into its new hometown nicely, and was called into action again a hundred years later when the local schoolhouse burned down - this time serving as the local public school while a new schoolhouse was being built.

Following that run, the house was put into service as a Parish House for the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, which sits just a stone's throw down the street. That ride lasted until a new Parish House came along in the year 2000 - at which point the church decided to lease the place out as a tea room.

Are you keeping up with all this? Summer home that lost its hometown, landed in a new town and pulled a tour of duty as a schoolhouse, then a Parish House, then a Tea Room - and at the moment, I'm not sure it is in use at all.

The Parish House Tea Room closed in 2015, as far as I can tell, leaving this lovely old place to rest in the shade for a spell. Maybe that's a good thing. Coming up on 200 years of age, it's about time the old girl took a break.

I didn't go to Eutawville looking for this house, by the way. It found me, and then I came home and went digging for the story, expecting to find something - but certainly not the story of a spare tire.