Gassaway Mansion

The Gassaway Mansion stands in a residential section of Greenville as an artifact of what Upstate South Carolina looked like at the peak of the textile and finance booms of the early twentieth century. Walter Gassaway, a stockbroker who had accumulated significant capital during the prosperity of the 1910s and 1920s, began construction on the 22,000-square-foot estate in 1919. The project took five years to complete, finishing in 1924.

The timing proved catastrophic. Five years after completion, the 1929 stock market crash began dismantling the fortunes of men like Gassaway across the country. The Depression years that followed ground his financial position down to ruin. According to accounts documented by Greenville360, Gassaway died on the front lawn of the mansion during the Depression years. An historical marker documents the property's history, placing his story within the documented record of the estate.

The mansion changed hands over the subsequent decades and has at various points been used for different purposes. Its sheer size — 22,000 square feet in a residential neighborhood — sets it apart physically and historically from the surrounding context. The property is privately held, limiting visitor access to the exterior.