 Hello, my name is Betsy Klinefelder and I'm one of the preservation planners for the City of Columbia's Planning and Development Services. Today we're going to talk about the Waverly neighborhood and the history of the district and how it contributes to the history of the City of Columbia. When you look at the richness of the history of Waverly, it really gives you reason to want to be here because the stories that can be told over and over, even to those who are coming into the area now, needs to know something about its history. So again, before you can get into where we are now, I think it's always important to go back and reflect on the past history and how it actually developed. The Waverly neighborhood was founded around the founding of Allen University and Benedict College. These both happened right after the Civil War in the era of the Reconstruction. Benedict College was founded in its current location in 1871 and Allen was founded in Cokesbury, South Carolina in 1870 and then moved to the current location in 1880. These two establishments, these two colleges were founded on the site of a former plantation and were considered to be outside of the boundaries of the City of Columbia at the time. Both of the colleges were set up as what we call today historically black colleges or universities and they were serving black students who had been formerly enslaved. Benedict College was founded by a missionary who came down from Rhode Island and Allen University was founded locally by members of the AME Church. Both of these colleges were serving to educate formerly enslaved citizens so that they would have the skills and the ability to be able to lead a productive life, to be able to be employed, to be teachers, businessmen, property owners and these residents, these students needed a place to live. So the houses around the university started to crop up in about the 1880s. And we see that this was a very successful neighborhood at that time and it was also very self-sufficient. The era of reconstruction did have a lot of opportunities for African-Americans but as that ended and the Jim Crow period came in, segregation was much more strictly enforced and it cut off many of the businesses that black residents would have had access to. So the Waverly neighborhood ended up becoming very self-sufficient. It was very inclusive and provided a lot of the services that black individuals would have needed for living life in a city like this. So this is a little different than other neighborhoods and other historic districts in the city where we will see a larger diversity of building types and uses as we explore this district. In 1913 it was incorporated into the city of Columbia and then in 1993 it was listed as a district on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2005 it was originally designated as a protection area with the city of Columbia. And then in 2016 the area guidelines were amended to increase these protections. And all of these protections were led by the citizens of the neighborhood. People who still live there, who many of them had family members who had lived in this area, getting back to the reconstruction era. And they wanted to preserve this district and recognize the value that is here in this community. I love that my neighborhood is historic. I love that my neighborhood has been recognized as a historic district. I think there are very few neighborhoods in South Carolina, African American neighborhoods that are on the National Register of Historic Places. So that's an accolade that I'm very proud of. Waverly, as we've said, has a unique character. It is different than a lot of the other neighborhoods in Columbia. It is considered to be the oldest continuously residential black neighborhood in the city. And some have described it as the first suburb of the city as well since it was founded early on and outside of the boundaries of the city. It was a self-contained community and it had to have a lot of these different types of building styles. Because of that, I would say, Jim Crow era, it was necessary for Waverly to become self-contained. We're actually a neighborhood that has a combination of those things here, industry and residents and institution. So we have a number of institutions. We have Allen University. We have five churches here. We have businesses on the perimeter. And we actually have some businesses that are in homes. And that was, you know, it continues to be a common way for African American people to make a living. Educational. As we saw, this is how the neighborhood began and was founded. Both of these were established very early on and they had the aim of teaching black residents many of the skills they would have needed to be able to be successful. Allen had originally focused on agricultural skills and technical skills. And Benedict was a little bit more of what we would call liberal arts school today, focusing on writing, business jobs, teaching, nursing and other topics such as that. Other primary schools were established in the area. There was the Waverley Primary School, which is now, the campus is now part of the Richland One School District. And these schools were very instrumental in helping African Americans directly after the Civil War to be able to be successful, to be business owners, teachers, doctors and property owners. Residential is what most of the neighborhood is made of. And there are a wide variety of types of residential houses. There are many houses that are two stories that are larger Victorian influenced houses. And then there are smaller bungalows and craftsman style houses as well as multifamily quadplexes and duplexes. So there really is a wide variety of housing types here in the district. Today the guidelines do protect original exterior finishes, including wooden framing and siding and also different porch enclosures and window types. The black community was very keyed in to establishing churches of their own after the Civil War and after the end of slavery. And so there were several important churches that were founded in the immediate years right after the Civil War. Black churches had a variety of denominations, African American Episcopal and Methodist churches, AME churches, Baptist churches. And so there are still five active congregations in the neighborhood. Bishop Memorial is the oldest, I believe, unaltered church in the neighborhood. It is on the national register in its own right. First Cavalry Baptist was one of the first black churches to be founded after emancipation. They can trace their founding back to what is now the Mansimon site. So many of these are some of the earliest and oldest black churches in the neighborhood. This commercial district would have been important for those living in this community as they were not able to access many of the white businesses during the Jim Crow era. So because of that, now you have their own beauty salon, they have their own grocery stores. They had their dressmakers. They had their tillers. They had their shoemakers. They had their own cap stand. Medical facilities, places for people to stay when they didn't have access to hotels. All of those physical evidences are here as long as we are able to retain and keep the buildings restored. When they started developing Waverly in 1911, Dr. Chapelle, W.D. Chapelle Sr. built the infirmary on the corner of Jovey and Hardin. And of course he built that for his son who had just graduated from Shaw Medical University and he became the first black surgeon in the Waverly community. The number of doctors, I can even begin to call them all. Blocks at the blocks, there are two or three doctors almost in every block. Dr. Everett's a block away. The Jenkins were all on Pine Street, which was called Dr's Row. Of course Matilda Evans also had two or three hospitals and clinics and nursing training schools in the area. And then of course around 1924 Dr. Jenkins started the, I mean communicated and put together the Waverly Hospital. In 1950 around that area they combined and became the Kids' American Waverly Hospital. It was organized as an extension of previous smaller hospitals that were on the same property. It was an example of the effort of African American people along with many other allies and collaborators to provide healthcare during segregated periods. So that hospital is connected to the Dr. Cyril Spann building because he was its chief of staff. So he built one of the first freestanding buildings that was a doctor's office separate from the home. Many of the medical offices were in the home. And then the Vazanska Starks building between those two properties was used as a nurses home and training facility. And this was led by Dr. Starks White Julia Starks. Dr. J.J. Starks was the first black president of Benedict College. Those were just three physical buildings that were connected to black medical history. All of this grew out of necessity and so therefore you have a rich history of professionalism that built Waverly. Thank you so much for taking the time to learn a little bit about the Waverly neighborhood. You can stay in touch with us at preservation at columbiasc.gov and find out more about the neighborhood guidelines and history on our website as well.