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Two iconic downtown Fountain Inn homes have been recognized for their historic significance and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

They are the first Fountain Inn homes to be listed on the Register, said Dan Powell, staff planner for Fountain Inn with Greenville County’s Planning Department.

The privately-owned homes, known as the McDowell House at 500 N. Main St., and the F.W. Welborn House at 405 N. Weston St., were added to the registry based on their local history and the significance of their Craftsman-style architecture. Both date to the early 1900s.

Donna Brown and her husband Rodney purchased the Welborn house in 2005, with the intent to re-sell it quickly.

Then she fell in love with the home.

“We just bought it because it was a good deal and we were going to flip it,” Brown said. “Then I got very, very attached. I couldn’t sell it and I needed to move into it.”

Brown liked the original trim work and window seats, the fireplaces, hardwood floors and a 5-foot pocket door inside the house.

The Welborn house also is known as the Eyebrow house for the distinctive eyebrow curve in the facade’s front eave. It was listed on the historic register because it is an “excellent example of a Craftsman-influenced house,” according to the National Register. It was built in 1914 by F.W. Welborn and moved to its current lot from the corner lot next door in 1925.

Brown said she’s lived in historic homes in both Greenville and Charleston and had a goal for years to own a home that’s on the National Register.

The Browns have made some renovations, moving the kitchen back to its original location near the front of the house and adding a staircase to make use of 800 square feet of attic living space.

“We kept everything that we could,” Brown said.

Councilman Matthew King and his wife Anna bought the McDowell House in August 2008 because they both were fond of the Craftsman-style period architecture. When they purchased it, they knew the house’s age and the quality of its historic characteristics might qualify it for the National Register, Matthew King said, but since the couple works in architecture, they recognized the historic value of the house as well.