The author, Steve Bailey, is outreach coordinator at the Anson County Historical Society.
The Anson County Historical Society’s main focus starting in 1963 was to preserve the Boggan-Hammond House, which was built in 1796 by Patrick Boggan for his daughter Eleanor when she married William Hammond. The society’s second interest at the time was preserving the Alexander Little House built by Mr. Little in 1839. These two old homes are located at 206 East Wade St. in Wadesboro on the property where the historical society office is located.
In 1963 there was a plan to demolish both old homes in order to make way for modern housing. Descendants of the Boggan and Little families protested and, through lots of dedication and hard work, enlisted the help of the historical society to forever keep these homes safe from destruction. Many years ago they were included on the National Register of Historic Places.
Admission to our historic homes is free but donations are very much appreciated. The society is not funded by the county or the state. In 1994, a brand new office building was built at 206 East Wade St. which includes a well-equipped research room of 1,100 files of local black history, plus information on many families of Anson County as well as the surrounding counties of Montgomery, Richmond, Stanly and Union, and the South Carolina counties of Chesterfield, Darlington and Marlboro.