In the late 19th century, Aiken gained fame as a wintering spot for wealthy people from the Northeast.

Thomas Hitchcock, Sr. and William C. Whitney established the Aiken Winter Colony.

Over the years Aiken became a winter home for many notable people, including George H. Bostwick, James B. Eustis, Madeleine Astor, William Kissam Vanderbilt, Eugene Grace, president of Bethlehem Steel, Allan Pinkerton, and W. Averell Harriman.

Among its founding commissioners were three African-American legislators: Prince Rivers; Samuel J. Lee, speaker of the state House and the first black man admitted to the South Carolina Bar; and Charles D. Hayne, a free man of color from one of Charleston's elite families.

[15] Aiken was a planned town, and many of the streets in the historic district are named for other cities and counties in South Carolina, including Abbeville, Barnwell, Beaufort, Chesterfield, Colleton, Columbia, Dillon, Edgefield, Edisto, Fairfield, Florence, Greenville, Hampton, Horry, Jasper, Kershaw, Lancaster, Laurens, Marion, Marlboro, McCormick, Newberry, Orangeburg, Pendleton, Pickens, Richland, Sumter, Union, Williamsburg and York.

In 1905, a group of Russian-Jewish socialists from New York founded a farming colony in Aiken County that was known as "Happyville".

Adath (Adas) Yeshurun (Congregation of Israel) Synagogue was chartered in Aiken in 1921 and the cornerstone was laid in 1925.

[16][17][18][19] In 1903, the Jewish-American peddler Abraham Surasky was the victim of an antisemitic murder that occurred near Aiken.

[20] Aiken was the subject of a series of broadcasts by Orson Welles in July and August 1946 regarding the blinding and severe beating of Sergeant Isaac Woodard, a black World War II veteran.

The United States Atomic Energy Commission's selection of a site near Aiken for a plant to produce fuel for thermonuclear weapons was announced on November 30, 1950.

Residences and businesses at Ellenton, South Carolina, were bought for use for the plant site.

Precipitation is distributed relatively uniformly throughout the year, with mostly rain in the milder months and occasional snow in the winter.

[27] The previous mayors include: It is within the Aiken County Public School District.