'Eight Oaks'resplendent for Christmas holiday tours
CHAPS will host weekend tours of historic 1902 home
Ed and Pam Cazel will offer a rare glimpse into Gaffney's past with the opening of their historic home for this year's Christmas holiday tour.

Ledger Photo / SCOTT POWELL Ed and Pam Cazel's historic home at 209 S. Johnson St. was originally built in the Victorian style and later renovated into a Classical Revival style. Another renovation in the early 1940s added rooms onto the back of the house and a second stairway. The home, now named "Eight Oaks," will be open for tours this weekend.

Eight Oaks at 209 S. Johnson St. was placed on the National Register of Historic Sites on March 27, 1986. It was built in 1902 by Victor Oil Company Inc. owner, Junius B. Lipscomb, and his wife, Sally Foster Lipscomb.

The Victor Ice Plant was established by Lipscomb in 1890 as part of the Victor Cotton Oil Company. It sold cotton oil, seed, rice, meal and fertilizer. At full capacity, it could gin 9,000 bales of cotton per year. The site is now the location of the Gaffney Law Enforcement Center.

The home remained in the Lipscomb family for over a century. Their daughter, Florence, lived in the house until she died in February, 2005.

The dining room of the Cazel's home is decorated with antiques and features a crystal chandelier.

The Cazels purchased the home six months after Florence passed away. The house has been modernized and restored by the family to how it might have looked a century ago.

Renamed Eight Oaks, the home will be opened this weekend for a fund raiser for the Cherokee Historical and Preservation Society. Tours may be taken Saturday, Dec. 8, from 1-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 9, from 2-5 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children.

"We feel a sense of responsibility to share this historic house with the community," Pam Cazel said. "We want to give residents an opportunity to tour the house and see what it looks like inside."