The Aiken Land Conservancy completed a conservation easement on the McGovern Tract in early April. This protected a 21-acre site containing the Dawson-Vanderhorst House, one of Aiken’s oldest standing residences.
The tract sits northeast of town near Wire and New Bridge roads. Experts who studied the building think it went up shortly after Charles Richmond received the land through a grant in 1785.
The 1½-story clapboard dwelling appears in the National Register of Historic Places. Carolyn and Jay McGovern own it now…