 Hi, my name is Rachel Walling, and I'm a preservation planner with the City of Columbia's Planning and Development Services. Thank you for joining me today as I talk through a brief history of the local landmark district. So starting off, what is a landmark district? Within the City of Columbia, a landmark district is considered a geographic area that contains a large number of individually landmarked buildings that all share a similar era of construction. Many of these buildings are high style and very highly architecturally intact. The landmark district itself is an early residential area of the City of Columbia. Many of these oldest homes were once owned by prominent Columbia citizens, some of them surviving from before the Civil War. But there's also a large number of good early 1900s examples of popular revival styles of architecture. The landmark district was designated a local landmark district in 1964 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Columbia Historic District 2 in 1971 with a boundary increase to encapsulate more of the neighborhood in 1982. So as being designated in 1964 as a historic district, it is one of the earliest historic districts within the City of Columbia where a lot of early preservation efforts started. So while the landmark district is primarily known for its extravagant high style architecture, most of the houses were actually built in the early 20th century. The district does include a wide variety of architectural types and styles including Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, but also more common forms that you see throughout the city in the early 1900s including bungalows and four square houses. As the landmark district, it is home to many individually landmarked buildings. Many of these early buildings were homes of prominent citizens and they are high style examples of their architectural type. Some of these landmark buildings were built in Queen Anne style which was during the Victorian era of architecture. You'll see 1315 Blanding Street and 1522 Richland Street are two different examples of Queen Anne style. They both have asymmetrical facades and use a high level of ornamentation typical of Queen Anne style. Another example of architecture in the district is Italianate, notable at 1430 Richland and 1534 Blanding with wide bracketed eaves which is a very recognizable feature of this particular architectural style. And there's also a large number of early Greek Revival and Neoclassical style homes. The De Bruyne Marshall House at 1401 Laurel Street being a very good example of Greek Revival architecture. There are also a number of properties within this historic district that are owned or managed by historic Columbia. The most well known among these are likely Robert Mills and Hampton Preston properties both of which are high style examples owned by prominent citizens of Columbia. Each take up a whole city block so they're very significant structures architecturally and historically. Another property with the landmark district that's notable for its association with prominent local citizens is the Man Simons Cottage. This pre-civil war home was owned by free blacks including Celia Mann who was the earliest known owner of the house and was instrumental in establishing a black church within the city. This was the first Calvary Baptist Church which held religious services in the basement of this home. The man and Simon's family that are associated with this property were business owners within the city before and after the civil war. A number of the buildings that were built on the property were demolished and had some of the Simon's businesses such as the lunch counter and grocery store that were available to blacks within the city during the time of segregation. Also within the landmark district are a number of churches. The churches within the landmark districts all represent examples of the Gothic revival style of architecture and you can see that with crenellations, the pointed arches and the stone detailing at St. Paul's, Ebenezer Lutheran and Good Shepherd Episcopal. One exception that you see to the Gothic revival style of architecture within the landmark district is at Ebenezer Lutheran Church. The oldest church building intact on the property was built in 1870 and remodeled around 1900. In this particular building shows the Georgian revival style of architecture. It has a central plating window and two twin towers each topped with cupolas. The cupolas interestingly enough were reconstructed just a few years ago. So while the landmark district may be known for its high-style houses that are associated with prominent citizens, there are a number of more modest houses that were being built in the neighborhood early on as well as later styles that you see commonly in a number of residential areas in the city of Columbia. Some of the earlier buildings that are more modest in their styling are Columbia cottagens such as 1421 Calfoon Street. This small house has a symmetrical facade, a central entry with porch and minimal detailing, as well as shotgun houses such as 1914 Hinton Street, which are notable for being very narrow homes, typically with one room stacked behind the other. Later examples of architecture coming in are bungalows and four square houses, which are typical forms that you see in a number of historic districts and residential areas in the city of Columbia in the early 1900s. These more modest style homes are still a very significant part of the historic district. These architectural styles, while sometimes more common, the forms more common throughout the city of Columbia, really showed the complete picture of the development of this particular neighborhood from the early 1800s into the early mid 1900s. So as I mentioned, into the 1930s and 40s, you see more common house types coming into neighborhoods such as bungalows and four squares. Also into the mid century, there is a lot of white flights in the city of Columbia from downtown area. So you have a lot of the older residences of the neighborhood being abandoned or not being as maintained as they once were as people are no longer living in these homes. So at that time, there was a lot of demolition into the 1960s, 70s, even into the 1980s. A lot of the buildings that were originally marked as landmarks or part of Landmark District were being demolished. At that time, we're seeing a lot of commercial buildings being built and so as well as a lot of the historic residences being converted to businesses, which is still true today. So while this area was originally a residential area, today it is a commercial area where most of the houses are used for businesses. Another interesting part of the story of the Landmark District is that it is really at the heart of the preservation movement in the city of Columbia. The Robert Mills House was proposed for demolition in the 1960s, which spurred a lot of local citizens to come together and stop the demolition, which led to the formation of the Columbia Foundation into the 1960s and also led to this area being considered a landmark district, as well as being listed in the National Register of Historic Places. So a lot of the preservation movement you see in the city of Columbia was started right here in the Landmark District in the 1960s. Thank you for joining me as I talk a little bit about the Landmark District. If you have any questions, please email us at preservation at columbiasc.gov. Thanks.