Greer Heritage Museum collection

This Classical Revival style house was built in 1937 for prominent local businessman Richard Perry Turner.

The house was designed by Greenville-based architect William Riddle Ward, commissioned after Turner saw the house designed by Ward for his younger brother, Robert Gibbs Turner. The brick house, on a poured concrete foundation, is almost 10,000 square feet in size. A brick garage, stable and octagonal brick summer house in the backyard were also designed by Ward for the property.

The house was listed in the National Register February 1, 1999.

The house is available for sale as of June 2020, listed for $1,100,000. 

Perry Turner, son of William Worth and Nancy Howell Turner, worked on his father's farm near Reidville until he moved to Greer in 1901 to work as a grocery clerk for his cousin, A. G. Howell.

Turner went into the grocery business for himself soon afterward with partner W. T. Mitchell; the store was known as Turner and Mitchell. He bought out Mitchell's interest in the firm two years later to create R. Perry Turner, Wholesale and Retail. An advertisement for Turner's Cash Store in the 1915 Greer city directory boasted "the best merchandise that money can buy at the right price. Men's and Ladies' Fine Shoes and Notions, Staple and Fancy Groceries. Remember I sell it for less."

Within a few years Turner sold the retail portion of his business to his younger brother Robert, retaining the wholesale portion; it was described in 1934, just before this house was built, as carrying "an extensive stock, consisting of staple and fancy groceries, feeds, and flours, and the average stock carried... amounts to between $75,000 and $100,000 in value... one of the very worth while organizations of its kind in the vicinity of Greer." Turner died in 1959, survived by his widow Annie Moon Turner. She later married John O. Kendrick and remained living in the house.