Withers Building

Built in 1912 (Gothic Revival). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

From the record

“The Withers Building, also known as the Winthrop Training School or W.T.S., is an historic building complex located at 611 Myrtle Drive on the campus of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The complex consists of three parts: the old Presbyterian High School, the Main Classroom - Office Building and the new Gymnasium.”
Wikipedia article Withers Building, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 62 National Register listings published here for York County · listed in 1981 · category: Building · built in 1912, Gothic Revival, by William Augustus Edwards.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. Oakland Ave., Rock Hill, 29730
When was it listed? August 1981
Category. building
Census division. Rock Hill
When was it built? 1912
Architectural style. Gothic Revival
Architect. William Augustus Edwards
National Register reference number. 81000571 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

106 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 106 fires within 5 miles of Withers Building between 1992 and 2020, burning about 259 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 12 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	43
Debris and open burning	28
Arson/incendiarism	12
Misuse of fire by a minor	8
Railroad operations and maintenance	5
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Recreation and ceremony	2
Other causes	1
Natural	1
Smoking	1
Fireworks	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
23 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
19 September 2005	Arson/incendiarism	3.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
15 September 2010	Recreation and ceremony	4.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
10 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	4.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
31 August 2005	Debris and open burning	under an acre	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
30 August 2014	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
29 August 1997	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
25 August 1998	Debris and open burning	5.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named

Every fire recorded in York County

Mines and quarries near this property

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Withers Building: 2 unknowns, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Rock Hill Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Unknown	Igneous
Rock Hill Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Unnamed Granite Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Unknown	Igneous
York Mill	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer

Every working recorded in York County

Storms near this property

60 of 92 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rock Hill, the town this property stands in, in 92 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 40 thunderstorm wind, 31 hail, 10 lightning, 5 flash flood. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
May 1996	Lightning	Rock Hill	1 hurt	no account filed
May 2014	Hail	Rock Hill	$3,000,000	National Severe Storms Lab relayed multiple public reports of up to golf ball size hail on the north side of Rock Hill.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	$50,000	Numerous trees, power lines, and power poles were blown down. One tree fell on a house, causing extensive damage.
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	$50,000	Numerous trees and power lines were blown down, many of which fell on homes and vehicles.
April 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	$50,000	A large sign was blown down at Cherry Park. A new roof under construction at a church was blown off. Trees were downed, with at least one falling on a vehicle.
May 2003	Lightning	Rock Hill	$20,000	Lightning ignited a couple of house fires.
February 2012	Lightning	Rock Hill	$20,000	no account filed
July 2002	Lightning	Rock Hill	$17,000	Lightning caused fires at two homes and at a business.
August 2003	Lightning	Rock Hill	$15,000	Lightning ignited a fire at a church.
August 2003	Lightning	Rock Hill	$15,000	Lightning ignited a fire at a business.
August 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	$10,000	Trees and power lines were down in Rock Hill.
September 2004	Tornado (F1)	Rock Hill	$5,000	This tornado touched down on the norheast side of Tega Cay and tracked almost due north into North Carolina. Damage was mainly limited to trees, but a few of these fell on homes and automobiles.
November 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	$5,000	Numerous trees were blown down or uprooted. Three vehicles were damaged by fallen trees.
June 2002	Lightning	Rock Hill	$5,000	Lightning struck a house and caused a small fire.
June 1997	Lightning	Rock Hill	$5,000	no account filed
February 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	$2,500	Part of the tin roof of a greenhouse was torn off, and a concession stand blown about 200 feet along highway 5 near the Applied Technology Center. Several pine trees were also blown down. Emergency manager inspected the damage and determined straight line winds were the likely culprit.
April 2006	Lightning	Rock Hill	$1,000	Lightning ignited a small fire in the attic of a vacant house. Damage was minimal.
November 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	$1,000	Some trees and power lines were blown down.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	$1,000	Trees and powerlines were blown down along Gold Mone Rd and Cherry Rd.
September 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	$1,000	Brief damaging winds occurred during a fast-moving, low-topped line of thunderstorms.
August 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	$1,000	Fallen limbs from thunderstorm winds fell on power lines, causing power outages. A split tree blocked a street for some time. Rainfall of 1.5 inches was also recorded.
January 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	$300	no account filed
May 2025	Hail	Rock Hill	-	Public reported half dollar size hail in the Rock Hill area.
May 2022	Hail	Rock Hill	-	Ham radio operator reported quarter size hail in the Rock Hill area.
May 2022	Hail	Rock Hill	-	Public reported quarter size hail.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	County comms reported several trees and a few power lines blown down across Rock Hill.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	Public reported (via Social Media) multiple trees blown down across roads in the Rock Hill area.
March 2016	Hail	Rock Hill	-	County comms reported 3/4 inch hail just south of Rock Hill.
May 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	County comms reported several power lines blown down in the Rock Hill area.
May 2014	Hail	Rock Hill	-	Spotter reported golf ball size hail with a third York County severe thunderstorm. This one tracked across the southern part of the county.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	A few trees were blown down between Rock Hill and Lake Wylie, with some trees on power lines.
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	Multiple trees and power lines were blown down in and around Rock Hill.
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	Multiple trees were blown down between Fort Mill and Rock Hill.
April 2011	Hail	Rock Hill	-	Golf ball size hail was reported on Walnut St in Rock Hill.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	Three trees were blown down in the Rock Hill area.
March 2008	Hail	Rock Hill	-	Reported near the intersection of highway 5 and I-77.
June 2008	Hail	Rock Hill	-	Hail reported at the Catawba Indian Reservation.
March 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	Several trees blown down from Rock Hill to Fort Mill, with a tree on a house on Lee St in Rock Hill.
April 2007	Hail	Rock Hill	-	Hail reportedly ranged from the size of pecans to golfballs.
June 2006	Heavy Rain	Rock Hill	-	A detention pond at a construction site in the southwest part of the city overflowed when over 3 inches of rain fell in several hours. This resulted in significant flooding of several yards, with water a couple of feet deep, on Ogden Rd in the southwest part of the city.
May 2006	Hail	Rock Hill	-	Large hail continued in the city of Rock Hill and points south, with hail growing to tennis ball size near downtown.
May 2006	Hail	Rock Hill	-	Numerous reports of hail up to golfball size in and around Rock Hill.
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	Trees and power lines blown down and several hundred power outages in the Rock Hill area. Most of the damage was in the southern part of the city, but a tree fell on a home on Westover Circle west of town. Numerous large tree limbs were also downed near the intersection of Marshall Rd and Dunlap-Roddey Rd.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	Numerous trees down across the county, especially along highway 5 northwest of Rock Hill and in the Lake Wylie area.
February 2003	Tornado (F0)	Rock Hill	-	A weak tornado touched down briefly in a Rock Hill suburb. During its 1800 foot track, the tornado snapped off several pine trees and blew a ridge vent off of a home. Debris carried by the tornado broke windows at another home and broke out a car windshield.
May 2003	Flash Flood	Rock Hill	-	After an extended period of heavy rain, overnight thunderstorms produced very heavy rainfall in a short period of time, which resulted in rapid rises and flooding along some creeks and streams. Several major streets flooded, some due to poor drainage, and others because of overflowing creeks. The parking lot was flooded at an apartment complex.
June 2003	Flash Flood	Rock Hill	-	Several small creeks flooded. Part of highway 5 was washed out.
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	Several trees were blown down along Saluda Rd, Straight Rd, and McConnells Rd.
May 2001	Hail	Rock Hill	-	Numerous reports of dime-sized hail with a second severe thunderstorm that affected the Rock Hill area.
May 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	Storm spotter reported severe caliber winds in northern York County.
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	Numerous trees and power lines down near Interstate 77.
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	Trained spotter report of 55 to 60 mph winds.
August 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	Large tree limbs blown across power lines in Rock Hill, resulting in power outages.
July 2001	Lightning	Rock Hill	-	Lightning resulted in numerous power outages.
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	Trees were blown down across much of the western half of York county. Trees limbs up to 3.5 inches in diameter were snapped off in Rock Hill.
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	One tree and several large limbs were blown down.
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Rock Hill	-	A line of severe thunderstorms moved out of the Georgia mountains into the upstate, causing wind gusts in the 50 to 60 knots range at many locations. Numerous trees and power lines were blown down causing extended power outages for thousands of customers. West of Long Creek a mobile home was destroyed. In Simpsonville a garage was shifted off its foundation. The towns of Central, Pendleton, Marietta, and Williamston were especially hard hit with extensive damage reported. In York County thunderstorm winds and lightning caused considerable damage to utilities and affected traffic.
August 1994	Hail	Rock Hill	-	One-inch hail at the York County Airport
April 2012	Hail	Rock Hill	-	no account filed
June 2011	Hail	Rock Hill	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in York County

Newspapers printed here

4 digitised pages

1 paper published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 1 issue, 4 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

Newspaper	Published
The Rock Hill Messenger	1896 to 1921

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Catawba Rosenwald School	5.4 miles	2013
Marion Street Area Historic District	5.5 miles	1992
R.L. and Annie Sturgis House	5.6 miles	2022
Highland Park Manufacturing Plant and Cotton Oil Complex	5.6 miles	1992
Afro-American Insurance Company Building	5.6 miles	1992
Hermon Presbyterian Church	5.7 miles	1992

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 81000571 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
York County	All 62 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.