 Described in 1964 as a lady with a dream, Mabel Bradley Payne was that and more. A pioneer of Columbia's preservation movement, she recognized the importance of the history of our city as embodied in the buildings that make it. Throughout her career and time in Columbia, she fought to save numerous parts of our city's history. Best known today for her work to save the Robert Mills House, Mabel Payne's efforts with the City of Columbia had a lasting impact on the preservation of historic properties throughout the city. Born in Abbeville, South Carolina, Mabel Payne moved to Columbia when she was 13, spending some of her formative years here. While in high school, she found her first passion, the stage, and she acted in several plays. Following her graduation from Columbia High School, Mabel Payne moved to New York City to further her study of acting. During her time there, she primarily worked as a teacher and married her first husband, Vasyl Kalmikov. Although her passion for preservation had not yet formed, her strong affinity for historic buildings was readily apparent. Mabel Payne sought out older residences in New York and even lived in a 19th century Chelsea townhome, formerly owned by Clement Clark Moore, author of The Night Before Christmas. When she returned to Columbia in 1936 after the death of her husband, she found that many buildings she had admired on her walk from Columbia High School to the University Hill neighborhood had disappeared. A trend she'd continued to witness over the next few decades. Upon returning to Columbia, Mabel Payne ran a progressive preschool in Maxi Gregg Park in the late 1930s. And from 1939 to 1941, she worked as the business manager of the town theater and director of their children's group. Mabel Payne once again left Columbia in the early 1940s and married her second husband, John Payne, in 1947. They lived in New York City, Alabama, and Virginia. And during her time in Virginia, her passion for acting and appreciation of history translated into a new role at Colonial Williamsburg, where she worked as a hostess, interpreting history in colonial dress for tourists. This work would have a lasting impact on her career and her worldview. In 1956, Mabel Payne moved back to Columbia one last time and took a job with the city as a tenant enforcement officer for the Urban Rehabilitation Department. Working with homeowners who participated in the rehabilitation program as part of the substandard housing ordinance, she saw firsthand how effective reinvestment into old homes could be. At the front line of the urban renewal program, she also saw how demolition threatened to destroy large swaths of our city's history. While she had little power to prevent the demolition of historic properties, Mabel Payne worked tirelessly to photograph buildings slated for and threatened by demolition. In essence, she created Columbia's first preservation records. Some of these photos, now housed at Richland Library, are the only images remaining of these early Columbia buildings. Some of these buildings include the William Glaze House on Park Street, 1502 Richland Street, 1615 Hampton Street, and the House and Office of Dr. Clifford Oliveros, the site of which is a parking garage today. Recently, city preservation staff rediscovered a group of 35 millimeter slides, including photographs taken by Mabel Payne and those who assisted her in documenting historic structures. These previously unseen photos include color images of lost Columbia buildings. These new slides will be uploaded to the Richland Library, Walker Local and Family History Room digital site in 2022. Some of Mabel Payne's first efforts to save historic properties beyond documenting them in photographs were largely influenced by her time in Williamsburg in the early 1950s. She hoped to create a mini Williamsburg in Columbia by moving historic buildings to the area around the governor's mansion, which, at the time, was feeling the pressure of urban renewal and rapidly losing historic structures. She later had a similar idea for the land surrounding the Robert Mills House, which was proposed for the construction of townhomes. While ultimately the dream of a safe haven for historic structures at either site did not come true, the governor's mansion area became one of Columbia's first historic districts, largely due to Mabel Payne's efforts and attention in the area. The Robert Mills House remains a pristine example of historic Columbia as well. Mabel Payne was also instrumental in the creation of the city's first landmark list, a list of properties throughout the city worthy of preservation. As the head of the city's historic division in 1966, she worked with an architecture professor from Clemson University to survey historic resources in the city, adding to the landmark list and prioritizing sites for preservation. While the Historical and Cultural Buildings Commission, which she staffed, generally only had the power to delay the demolition of properties on this list, there were several instances where the delay led to properties being saved and, in some cases, relocated to be preserved elsewhere. Examples include the Robert Mills House, Chestnut Cottage, Caldwell-Boilston House, and 1518 and 1522 Richland Street, all of which were preserved in their original locations. Other buildings that were saved by relocation include an 18th century log cabin moved from River Drive to Sesquicentennial State Park. 1921 Park Street, which was moved to Windover Drive, and the French Consulate Building, which was moved several times but eventually relocated to the old Shandon area. As an early voice for local preservation, Mabel Payne's efforts to preserve historic buildings and the history of our city has had a long-lasting impact on the fabric of the build environment in Columbia. Preservation at the city level has been built upon the foundation of her work, and we remain indebted to Mabel Payne and her pioneering efforts to save Columbia's history.