The Lake Murray Country Visitors Center is located in the historic Lorick Plantation Home. The center is packed full of fun for everyone, from maps and brochures to an aquarium full of fish right from the lake. The Visitors Center also has a museum that highlights the four-county region of Lake Murray Country: Lexington, Richland, Newberry, and Saluda Counties. If you are ever looking for something new in the area, or are visiting for the first time, the Lake Murray Country Visitors Center is the place for you.
The Visitors Center also houses the Lake Murray Gift Shop. Looking for a Lake Murray item? Stop and shop at 2184 North Lake Drive, Columbia, SC 29212.
The History of the Lorick Plantation Home
The Lorick Plantation Home was built by George Lorick in 1840. The original two-story plantation home featured four large rooms, two on each floor, with a hipped lower porch and an enclosed center porch on the second floor. The kitchen and bathroom were separate structures behind the house.
During General Sherman’s infamous Civil War march through the South, Union troops held an encampment at the Lorick Plantation. When the troops left, they drug hot coals from the dining room fireplace across the wooden floors in an attempt to burn the house down. Fortunately, the Lorick family returned in time to extinguish the fire, though some damage remains visible today where floorboards were replaced.
The home remained in the Lorick family until William J. Fullbright bought it in 1937. After Fullbright’s death in 1943, his widow sold the house to Harold P. Lorick, how then restored it, adding new flooring, wings, porches and even a race track to the property while preserving its original design. In 1952, Frederick Benjamin Green bought the home and named it “Green Acres.” The Greens’ daughter, Helen Green Love, and her husband, James K. Love Jr., relocated to the home in 1964, where they lived until 1994. That year, Mrs. Love donated the home to the Lake Murray Tourism and Recreation Association – now known as the Capital City/Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism Board – to be used as a visitors center.
In 1995, the house was moved approximately five miles from its original site on St. Andrews Road to its current location. The house was moved in one piece, a process that took seven hours. Prior to its relocation, extreme care was given in restoring the home to its original condition. The home features heart of pine floors and ceilings, hand-hewn stairs and railings, and four fireplaces.
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