Editing Rock Hill, South Carolina (section)

===Post-Civil War===
The Civil War changed the social, economic, and political situation in Rock Hill tremendously, as it did elsewhere in the South. Rock Hill grew as a town, taking in war refugees, widows and their families, and the return of the men who had left to fight in the war.<ref name=Willoughby />{{RP|page=58}} The formerly wealthy elite sold off their land to stay afloat financially. Town life would begin to become more important than rural life.

Most of the merchants in Rock Hill around 1870 were former Confederate soldiers; many were entrepreneurs who were new to town, trying to start over.<ref name=Willoughby />{{RP|page=59}} In 1870, even the largest stores in Rock Hill were only one story tall, and there were no sidewalks along the roads. The first drug store in Rock Hill opened in the 1870s.<ref name=Willoughby />{{RP|page=61}} A locally contentious bordello was built in 1881 and introduced the town's first paved sidewalk.<ref name=Willoughby />{{RP|page=61}}