 Hello, my name is Lydia Brandt, and I worked with Stacey Ritchie of Access Preservation to complete the Columbia Downtown Historic Resource Survey. This short video summarizes the results of our survey project conducted over the spring, summer, and early fall of 2020. This video is in place of an in-person public meeting, but I'll provide contact information at the end of the video if you have questions or concerns. This project surveyed historic resources in downtown Columbia, South Carolina. The project was paid for by the City of Columbia's Planning and Development Services Department, which won a matching grant from the National Park Service administered by the South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. For more background information about the survey, please see our first presentation available on YouTube explaining the purpose and functions of the survey. This video was published in May 2020 and served as a public meeting in lieu of an in-person presentation due to the current pandemic. This program received federal financial assistance for identification and protection of historic properties. The boundaries of the survey area were approximately Elmwood Avenue to the north, the river to the west, Blossom Street to the south, and Hardin Street to the east. There are three components to the final project report. The first is a historic context or report on the history of buildings in Columbia. We researched the growth of Columbia to understand how areas of the city developed over time in different ways. The historic context laid out what we expected to find in the next component or phase of the project, the survey inventory. We surveyed or looked closely at 721 historic resources in downtown Columbia. This number was primarily buildings, but also included infrastructure and examples of public art. We photographed and described each of these historic resources. The final of the three components for this project are recommendations. This is a detailed list of sites that we recommend for consideration for the national register of historic places or for designation at the local level. First let's discuss the results of our historic context research. We expected to find that Columbia grew differently north and south of Gervais Street. Columbia's residential and commercial areas north of Gervais Street were more dense than those south of Gervais Street. This is due to a number of factors. One was the railroads. There's lots of tracks that crisscross the southern part of Columbia still today. The second is topography and water. The land south of Gervais Street was more difficult to develop than that north, meaning that development happened more sporadically south of Gervais Street than north of Gervais Street. Much of what Columbia looks like today was determined by urban renewal in the 1960s and 1970s, especially south of Gervais Street. Urban renewal claimed to be cleaning up blighted areas or slums, but this impacted African-American neighborhoods, demolishing hundreds of businesses and homes, pushing African-Americans out of downtown Columbia. And now for the results of our survey. We surveyed all historic buildings, sites, and objects created from Columbia's earliest years through 1975 within the survey boundary that had not already been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Here are some examples, including a house at 1510 Calhoun Street, the Hebrew Cemetery, and a remnant of a railroad spur along the 2000 block of Blanding Street. Of the 721 resources we surveyed, the majority were obviously commercial. The column on the right-hand side of this table gives you a sense of how many of the resources we surveyed changed function over time. As you can see, the greatest number of resources changing function changed from domestic functions to commercial functions, meaning buildings that were originally homes were converted into various kinds of commercial, office, or retail purposes. Keep in mind that these tallies do not include every building in downtown Columbia, but only the ones that we surveyed. About 59% of the resources that we surveyed dated to the mid-century period. They were built between 1945 and 1975. This was a period in which the modern style of architecture was popular, resulting in hundreds of examples throughout the survey area, most of which were commercial buildings. Because the last historic resource survey was conducted in Columbia in the early 1990s, most of these mid-century buildings that we might not consider historic had never been surveyed before. This was the first time that they had been surveyed. A number of the modern buildings in downtown Columbia that we surveyed had been altered heavily since their construction, including these examples at 1301 Main Street and 1410 Blanding Street. Local architect Maynard Pearlstein designed the building at the bottom left in 1964. It features a drive-through to a parking lot behind the building. The windows and exterior of this building have been severely altered, including the stuccoing of its brick facade. This is an alteration that has changed this building almost beyond recognition, threatening its historical significance. Here's a little taste of the residential resources that we surveyed. There are some wonderful historic houses that still survive in downtown Columbia. As I said, many of them have been converted to commercial uses, like offices. Porches are a dominant feature of residential buildings in Columbia. It might surprise you that many of these architecturally interesting homes had never been surveyed before and are not listed on the National Register or protected by local landmark designations. Columbia has a wide variety of architectural styles amongst its commercial buildings, including vernacular adaptations, such as that on the far right here. During the mid-20th century, commercial uses spread into formerly residential areas, so the survey found commercial resources spread throughout downtown Columbia. The example at the center, 1710 Jervais Street, is an excellent example of a mid-century commercial building in the new formalist style. Many buildings within the survey area result to institutions and especially educational institutions in the University of South Carolina. USC built some of the best examples of modern architecture in Columbia, including some of the best examples of brutalism, new formalism, and the international style. Carolina Coliseum is a brutalist building. Capstone and Thomas Cooper Library are excellent examples of new formalism. Its explosion of modern architecture at USC in the 1960s and 70s was thanks to the tripling of the student population and the infusion of state and federal funding for campus expansion. The University of South Carolina expanded to the east, south, and west between the 1940s and 1970s, aided in part by urban renewal efforts to the west and south. We found many religious buildings, and Columbia retains a lot of its historic churches. These include a few examples from the mid-20th century, including vernacular adaptations of modern styles and more high style examples such as the Wesley Fellowship on Pickens Street, seen here on the right. We also found other kinds of resources, including three pedestrian bridges that connect buildings or run across roadways. This example on the far left runs across Marion Street and connects the main center of the University of South Carolina's campus to the dormitories and other facilities south of Blossom Street. The city waterworks, seen here at the center, was built around 1908 and includes a number of water basins as well as a coal storage chute, which had formerly been accessed by a railroad spur. The railroad has been replaced with the walking path at Riverfront Park. The Seth Thomas Clock, seen here at Washington and Main Street, is a twin to another clock, one block north. And now for the recommendations we made as the result of our survey. The survey process is for identification of resources only. Recommendations for eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places are approved by the South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Our recommendations do not create listings in the National Register of Historic Places. It is up to property owners to pursue listings. So following our survey, which captures those historic resources through photographs and written inventories, we do preliminary research to determine dates of construction and other bits of information, sometimes including the architect for the building. We then evaluate our data by compiling it and comparing resources against one another. We identify themes or groups of buildings. Finally, we use this information to make our recommendations. We identify resources that maintain historic integrity, or in other words, that retain as much of their historic fabric and connection to their historic significance as possible. We then make recommendations for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, which are reviewed by the State Historic Preservation Office. The City of Columbia was also given a chance to review our recommendations. We recommend 11 commercial resources for individual listing on the National Register of Historic Places. These resources represent a variety of building types and architectural styles within the survey area. Here are a few photographs of the sites showing the variety of architecture. Sites like the Star Music and People's Pawn Shop, seen on the lower left, are all that survive of a once dense commercial district along Assembly Street, which once rivaled Main Street. M.H. Baxley's Groceries, seen on the upper right, was part of a residential community of both black and white residents. And it was operated by a black family and served mostly the local black population north of Gervais and east of Bull Street. Lyle's Basette Carlisle and Wolf's Architectural Office is seen on the upper left. LBC and W is South Carolina's most active modern architecture firm and designed many of the modern buildings within the survey area. We recommended Levy's Funeral Home on Taylor Street, seen on the lower right, for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Its nomination is currently under consideration by the South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. We recommend three institutional buildings for individual listing on the National Register of Historic Places, all built in the 1960s. These include the South Carolina State Library and the South Carolina State Archives, both located on Senate Street and the United States Post Office, designed by LBC and W in 1966 along Assembly Street. These buildings are all great examples of mid-20th century building styles, including brutalism with the South Carolina State Library, the International Style with the U.S. Post Office, and stripped classicism in the South Carolina State Archives. We recommend one parking structure for individual listing on the National Register of Historic Places under parking and transportation. Parking garages were new to Columbia during the early 1960s. The city's municipal parking garage, seen here along Taylor and Assembly Streets, was designed by LBC and W and completed in 1965. It was the first parking garage built by the city, and it represents a shift towards the commuter as building uses in downtown Columbia shifted from residential to commercial. And the city became concerned about keeping shoppers downtown rather than in the growing suburban shopping malls. We recommend three residential resources for individual listing on the National Register of Historic Places. These recommendations include a rare single-story Italianian house, the Highest Trinander House. The house on the lower right at 1108 Blanding Street is the sole surviving residential structure from what used to be a fairly dense collection of residential buildings surrounding the Central Business District on Main Street. It was built around 1903 as a personage for the adjacent African American church, Sydney Park Methodist Episcopal. Finally, number three, the house on the lower left was the home of Nathaniel Frederick, a black lawyer who argued a number of cases in front of the state Supreme Court. He was also principal of Howard School, an African American school, and editor of the Palmetto Leader, a major black newspaper in Columbia. We recommend one recreational building for individual listing on the National Register of Historic Places. This is the Young Men's Christian Association Building at Sumter and Bull Street. This building was constructed in 1911. It retains a lot of its original limestone detail on the first two stories, including the original name of the building, which has recently been converted to a different use by the new owner, First Baptist Church. Next are our recommendations for historic districts. Historic districts have common themes and geography. They're locations that have concentrations of resources that share a similar history or style of architecture. These districts are representative of Columbia's history. We recommend four historic districts for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. All of these historic districts have good examples of modern architecture. The first historic district that we recommend is the Hampton Street Medical Corridor. This proposed district includes 32 buildings, 25 of which are contributing. It stretches along the 1,800 to 2,000 blocks of Hampton Street, the 1,400 and 1,500 blocks of Gregg Street, and the west side of the 1,400 block of Barnwell Street. It is locally significant as an example of national trends and healthcare design. The buildings you see here are all recommended for listing as part of the Hampton Street Medical Corridor. They are good examples of the small doctor and dentist offices or medical office buildings that proliferated in these blocks from the 1950s through the 1970s. This area gained a concentration of medical office buildings because of its proximity to the city's two hospitals, the city general hospital at Hardin and Lawrence Street, which was demolished in the 1970s, and Baptist Hospital at Marion and Hampton Street, which is now Prisma Health Baptist Hospital. Many of these offices have parking in the back, some with side entrances, and all are scaled to a suburban setting, on lots formally occupied by residential buildings. This district shows the change in use that happened within the survey area in the mid-20th century. The second district recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places is the Hardin Street Black Commercial Historic District, along the 1,500 block of Hardin Street. This small proposed district consists of only five buildings, but nevertheless represents a fairly intact grouping of what existed along these blocks of Hardin Street by the late 1960s. The small commercial grouping includes a former restaurant, motel, bank, and movie theater. The Carver Movie Theater is already individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. All of these buildings were constructed for black-owned businesses that served the communities to the west and east, including Allen University, Benedict College, and the Waverly neighborhood. Although they're now vacant, these buildings are the most intact black commercial district that survives within the survey area of downtown Columbia. The third historic district that we propose for listing in the National Register of Historic Places is the New Campus Historic District. It includes 27 resources to the south and west of the University of South Carolina's historic core at the horseshoe. This district includes a number of excellent examples of mid-century modern architecture, including Brutalist buildings like the Jones Physical Science Building, the Carolina Coliseum and Bates Hall, and new formalist structures such as the Thomas Cooper Library, along with other international style examples, including Summit College and Russell House. The final historic district recommended as part of this project is also on USC's campus. This is the East Campus Historic District. The University of South Carolina expanded east across Pickin Street via a pedestrian bridge in the 1970s. This group of primarily Brutalist buildings was the result of careful comprehensive planning and a strong interest in density and modern architecture. The University closed several blocks of College Street in order to create this comprehensive grouping of largely Brutalist buildings. It remains intact. We recommended two multiple property submissions. Multiple property submissions are used when there are a group of buildings that share common features but are not located near one another and therefore cannot be a district. The first of the two multiple property submissions recommended is for apartment buildings. We identified 34 multi-storied purpose-built apartment buildings within the survey area. Seven of these, including the four you see on the screen here, retain significant levels of integrity and are not already listed in the National Register. Apartment buildings evolved over time and the examples we survey span from 1913 to 1975. Columbia has an excellent collection of representative multi-story apartment buildings, many of which are named. The second of our multiple property submissions recommended is for mid-century office buildings. Our survey identified 76 purpose-built office buildings constructed between the 1940s and the 1970s in various modern architectural styles, making the office building the most prolific example of modern architecture in the survey area. These buildings range in size from a single modest story to high-rises and include excellent examples of modern styles, materials, landscape features, and site design through the 1970s. Next, we have our recommendations for local listings within the City of Columbia. Keep in mind that anything that I've already talked about that was recommended for the National Register of Historic Places is also recommended for local listing within the City of Columbia. What follows are additional sites that are not necessarily eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, but would be eligible for listing within the City. We recommended 13 individual buildings for local landmark status within the City of Columbia. These include residential buildings, such as 1417 Pickin Street and 1518 Lady Street. They also include commercial resources, such as Constant Car Wash, with its pierced and crimped cornice along Gervais Street. The Masonic Temple has some excellent details, including a unique cast-iron sidewalk. Built around 1883 in the backyard of Ellen Janney's home on Blanding Street, the Little Red School House, or Janney School, has been moved several times. It is the only surviving private school building in downtown Columbia. The Steyr Supply Company is one of the few modern storefront and warehouse configurations to survive intact within the survey area. The Seth Thomas Clock on Main Street is from around 1908 and has a twin one block to the north. We recommended three districts for local listing in the City of Columbia. The first is along Hampton Street. This proposed district would include the Medical Office District already recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, seen here in red, as well as two additional lots to the south outlined in yellow and a residential area outlined in blue and including 1722 Hampton Street. This comprehensive district would ensure that more buildings were considered contributing to an expanded period of significance. The second district recommended is the Wayne Street Historic District. Although buildings in this neighborhood have been altered, Wayne Street's 1700 block is one of the few fairly intact residential blocks that can help tell the story of how Columbia's downtown neighborhoods shifted from white populations to black populations during the early 1900s. It includes the Harriet Cornwell Tourist Home already listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the former home of Richard Samuel Roberts, one of the few black photographers in Columbia in the 1920s and 30s. It also contains two of the very few shotgun style houses left in Columbia, which used to be prevalent all over the city. An example is seen here at 1724 Wayne Street on the lower right. The final district that we recommend for local listening is the Senate Street Historic District. Planned along the wide Senate Street, this district is adjacent to the South Carolina State Capitol and includes buildings that were constructed to support the state government. The Senate Street District includes Clare Towers and Senate Plaza, two excellent examples of modern apartment buildings, the Rutledge Building and other modern office buildings and the Gonzalez Monument along the long, wide Senate Street median. The final pages of our report detail other recommendations. Columbia has a huge amount of historic resources left to identify through future survey work. The expansion of the suburbs, many of which are now survey-eligible, create a vast landscape of potential areas to investigate. Mid-century signs and slip covers on older buildings like the one pictured here, King Jewelers on Main Street are examples of often-neglected historic resources. Here are some specific ideas we recommend for future work. We recommend changes to most of the existing districts listed in the National Register of Historic Places within the survey area, whether through a change in the period of significance or the appreciation of another historical theme. Here are three maps of the districts that we recommend changes to. Columbia Districts One and Two, both located north of Gervais Street and University of South Carolina's Old Campus District focused on the horseshoe. For these three districts, we recommend expanding the existing boundaries to capture some surrounding resources that fill in well with the existing building stock already listed in the National Register of Historic Places. We also make a series of other recommendations that could help to support the preservation of the historic resources identified in this report. While this is not an exhaustive list, it is a good starting point to help the city of Columbia to generate more appreciation for the work of historic preservation and for the research and understanding of what exists. Even during the course of this survey, some of the resources were altered and some buildings such as Moe Levy's on Assembly Street were demolished before the end of the survey period. There is development pressure on all of the historic resources in Columbia and much has already been lost. It is the goal of this survey to capture what exists and to encourage continued efforts to identify those historic resources that make Columbia special. These include education about historic preservation as a development tool, educating local government leaders and the public about the importance of modern architecture, conducting more surveys within the city limits, including mid-century resources along major corridors like North Main Street, Two-Nacht Road and Divine Street, as well as residential neighborhoods, investigating mid-century interior features that are of significance, investigating historic signs and considering ways to preserve them, researching historic African-American and Jewish sites within the city, researching and documenting historic sculptures and monuments, and finally researching and documenting the historic brick walls that dot Columbia's landscape. This project has resulted in a compiled report, survey forms for each of the 721 resources surveyed and photographs all in a digital format that will soon be available on the city's website and on the website of the South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. The final report will also be available in a limited run of physical paper copies. To access these items or if you have any questions, please contact the project manager, Rachel Walling, Senior Preservation Planner at the City of Columbia. Thank you for listening and we hope that you enjoy our report.