Built in the 1790s by Virginian James Kay on land granted him by Governor Charles Pinckney in 1792, this house stood along what was then known as the Charleston Road, where Kay worked as a blacksmith and operated a stagecoach stop. It was built of sawn lumber dressed by hand, with squared floor joists notched and secured by wooden pegs. Jesse Gent acquired the house in the 1820s, and in 1829 a post office was established there with Gent as postmaster, after which the place became known as Gentsville. With the construction of the Columbia-Greenville Railroad in the 1850s and the establishment of Honea Path, Gentsville fell into decline as a community.