York is a small town and county seat of York County in the Olde English District of South Carolina west of Rock Hill and southwest of the major city of Charlotte in North Carolina.
The first European settlers came to York in the early 1750s, having migrated south from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Of the three major groups settling Pennsylvania, the English came first, then the Germans, and then the Scottish. The county names of Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire had been brought from England to Pennsylvania, and then on to South Carolina by the early settlers.
Prior to this, the first known inhabitants of York County were the Catawba Indians.
The town of York used to be known as Fergus’s Crossroads for a tavern, owned by two brothers, William and John Fergus, at the intersection of the road from Rutherfordton to Camden and the road from Charlotte to Augusta. When the county of York was established in 1785 the state statute required each county to erect a courthouse and public buildings in the most convenient part of the county, with a tax levied to cover the cost of "building the court houses, prisons, pillories, whipping posts and stocks." Fergus’s Crossroads was near the geographic center of the newly formed county and was chosen for the site of the new county seat.
York is accessible via South Carolina Highway 5 from Interstate 85 exit number 102 in Blacksburg and Interstate 77 exit numbers 73 and 82-C in Rock Hill.
York is best accessed by car, but bicycles are frequently used on town streets. Walking is also the main source of getting around in Downtown York, because of limited parking.
York and the surrounding area is known for its presence in agriculture. There are numerous farmers markets in or near the town of York. Below are a few.
There are no accommodations in the town of York, but there are numerous options in nearby Rock Hill and Fort Mill.
2nd-order administrative division
Primary administrative division