Date of Award
5-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Planning, Development, and Preservation
Committee Member
Carter Hudgins, Committee Chair
Committee Member
Ralph Muldrow
Committee Member
Kristopher King
Abstract
During the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, wealthy northerners developed the South Carolina towns of Aiken and Camden into important winter resorts. South Carolina’s mild winters and accessibility by rail attracted Gilded Age elites to Aiken and Camden’s Winter Colonies. As part of their recreational social activities, the wealthy winter residents developed golf courses, polo clubs, and fox hunts. Vacationing thoroughbred racehorse owners realized that the mild winter climate was ideal for training, leading them to establish training facilities and tracks during the early-to-mid twentieth century. These training facilities cemented the towns’ statuses as important winter training centers, leading important figures in American thoroughbred racing and major racing farms to construct barns near the training tracks. A number of significant trainers, including many U. S. Racing Hall of Fame inductees trained nationally- and internationally-renowned racehorses in Aiken and Camden. This thesis traces the development of Aiken and Camden’s equine landscapes including landscape features like tracks, training barns, and outbuildings. It identifies a distinctive typology of vernacular training barns that emerged in each of the towns and traces the standardization of training barn forms during the mid-to-late twentieth century. It also provides insight into how the equine landscapes reflected class, gender, and racial hierarchies. The analysis of spatial usage patterns used to develop barn types is supplemented by archival materials including period photographs, maps, plats, correspondence, newspapers, magazine articles, and oral histories to gain insight into the history of the barns and local racing culture.
Recommended Citation
Fesak, Mary C., "Twentieth-Century Thoroughbred Training Landscapes of Aiken and Camden, South Carolina" (2018). All Theses. 2834.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/2834