Batesburg Commercial Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

From the record

“Batesburg Commercial Historic District is a national historic district located at Batesburg-Leesville, Lexington County, South Carolina. It encompasses 28 contributing buildings in the central business district of Batesburg.”
Wikipedia article Batesburg Commercial Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 56 National Register listings published here for Lexington County · listed in 1982 · category: District.

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

The listing

Address. Granite, Oak, Pine, Church Sts., Rutland and N. Railroad Aves., Batesburg, 29006
When was it listed? July 1982
Category. district
Also known as. Batesburg-Leesville MRA
Census division. Batesburg-Leesville
National Register reference number. 82003875 - 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

90 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 90 fires within 5 miles of Batesburg Commercial Historic District between 1992 and 2020, burning about 400 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 8 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
Debris and open burning	35
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	28
Arson/incendiarism	8
Equipment and vehicle use	5
Natural	5
Power generation/transmission/distribution	3
Smoking	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Recreation and ceremony	2

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
9 September 2018	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
7 September 1997	Debris and open burning	20 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
4 September 1999	Debris and open burning	under an acre	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
30 September 1993	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
12 September 2006	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
26 August 2002	Natural	under an acre	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
24 August 2011	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
22 August 2011	Power generation/transmission/distribution	1.5 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named

Every fire recorded in Lexington County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Batesburg Commercial Historic District: 1 past producer, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Clay, Granite, Stone, Dimension. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Marlowe Creek	Clay	Past Producer	Sedimentary
	Whittle Quarry	Granite, Stone, Dimension	Unknown	Igneous

Every working recorded in Lexington County

Storms near this property

35 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Batesburg, the town this property stands in, in 35 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 21 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 3 flash flood, 1 lightning. The reports record 6 injuries. 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 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	6 hurt	Sheriff reported trees down throughout county and damage to homes and buildings, including Airport High School where several students and faculty were injurred by flying debris.
June 2023	Flash Flood	Batesburg	$500,000	Batesburg-Leesville police reported numerous road closures with multiple stalled vehicles including Hall Street at Elizabeth Street, Liberty Street at S. Oak Street, and Railroad Ave at Fox Street. A vehicle was submerged by flood water on Bethlehem Rd.\|Significant flooding along Hwy 1 near Broad St under the Railroad bridge with at least 2 feet of water crossing the road resulted in a permanent road closure until CSX railroad could come and inspect the railroad bridge due to unstable tracks from wash out. \|Water was also entering 4 homes in and around Batesburg-Leesville.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	$150,000	Reported large trees down in Batesburg and power poles down in Leesville. Significant damage also occurred at Wiz's Southern Convenience storm and Oswald Lumber company.
April 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	$36,000	Sheriff reported trees fell on a house and parked vehicle on Madera Road between Hwys 391 and 178.
July 2011	Lightning	Batesburg	$28,000	Spotter reported a barn was completely destroyed be fire caused from a lightning strike.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	$10,000	EM reported numerous trees down at Hwy 178 and Fairview Road and also at I-20 exit 39.
July 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	$3,000	DOT reported several trees down in Batesburg.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	$2,000	Highway Patrol reported several trees down near Batesburg.
February 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	$2,000	Sheriff and SKYWARN spotters AF4VN and KE4LHS reported a shed destroyed in Batesburg and trees down in eastern portions of the county from Swansea to Chapin.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	-	Spotter report with video. Estimated 50-60 mph winds near Batesburg.
June 2023	Heavy Rain	Batesburg	-	USGS rain gage at Batesburg-Leesville Municipal Building measured 3.01 inches of rain in one hour. The two day rainfall total was 8.02 inches.
July 2021	Flash Flood	Batesburg	-	Heavy rain overwhelmed a culvert along Duncan Creek causing part of Hwy 391 south of Bethlehem Rd to be closed off by law enforcement. Video sent on social media showed water along the road which was estimated to be around 2 ft deep. Time of flash flooding estimated.
October 2014	Funnel Cloud	Batesburg	-	Public reported and provided video of a wall cloud and funnel cloud.
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	-	Trained spotter measured a 52 kt wind gust.
July 2011	Hail	Batesburg	-	Public reported nickel to quarter size hail in Batesburg.
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	-	Public reported a couple of trees down on CR 23.
August 2006	Flash Flood	Batesburg	-	Police reported several roads cclosed due to flooded waters. A couple of cars were stalled in the water with no occupants inside.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	-	Highway Patrol reported trees down on I-20 between mile marker 40 and 44.
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	-	City police reported several trees down on powerlines.
September 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	-	Police reported a few trees down in Batesburg around Summerland and Youman streets.
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	-	Sheriff reported trees down at Bethany School House in Batesburg.
July 2003	Hail	Batesburg	-	Police reported 3/4 inch hail.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	-	Police reported trees and powerlines down.
July 2003	Hail	Batesburg	-	Public reported 3/4 inch hail.
May 2001	Hail	Batesburg	-	Police reported dime size hail.
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	-	Highway Maintenance reported trees down in the Batesburg area.
April 1999	Hail	Batesburg	-	Sheriff reported nickel size hail at I20 and hwy 178.
April 1999	Hail	Batesburg	-	Police reported dime size hail.
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	-	Sheriff reported powerlines down.
June 1998	Hail	Batesburg	-	SKYWARN spotter reported 3/4 inch hail.
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	-	SKYWARN spotter reported trees down.
April 1998	Hail	Batesburg	-	Spotter reported dime size hail.
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	-	Sheriff reports trees down along U.S.1.
October 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	-	no account filed
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Batesburg	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lexington County

Newspapers printed here

1,630 digitised pages

1 paper published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 261 issues, 1,630 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 Batesburg Advocate	1901 to 1911

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
John Jacob Rawl House	0.1 miles	1982
J. B. Holman House	0.2 miles	1982
Cartledge House	0.2 miles	1982
Simon Bouknight House	0.3 miles	1982
McKendree Mitchell House	0.3 miles	1982
Broadus Edwards House	0.3 miles	1982

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 82003875 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Lexington County	All 56 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.