About Walterboro

 Walterboro has three museums that share different chapters in the city’s history. The Colleton Museum is located in the old jail and explores the region’s history from pre-historic times to the early 1900s. The Bedon Lucas House is one of Walterboro’s five remaining “high houses” designed and built high off of the ground to escape mosquitoes and catch cool breezes. It is a good example of the houses early Walterboro residents built as summer escapes and is furnished with antique pieces gathered from the area. Finally, the Slave Relic Museum is dedicated to documenting, preserving, interpreting, and celebrating the history and culture of people of African descent. It is the first African American history museum of its kind in the area and is a part of South Carolina’s African American Heritage Trail. 

 Walterboro, South Carolina, (population 5,900) was founded by two rice planters, brothers Paul and Jacob Walter, who were looking to find higher, dryer ground for their families during the summer months. The village, named for the brothers, began in 1783, was named the county seat in 1817 and incorporated in 1826. Walterboro is the seat of Colleton County, one of three original Carolina counties on the Atlantic seacoast granted by King Charles II to his supporters in 1663.