VOLUME
57 ISSUE â„– 02
Historically Speaking
WINTER 2018 A NEWSLETTER OF HISTORIC COLUMBIA
Letter from the Executive Director A
s we embark on new projects and public programs in 2018, I am encouraged by the high level of community engagement around Historic Columbia’s efforts in 2017. From the volunteers who charged forward to extract mouth-watering recipes and heart-felt memories for the new Kugels and Collards blog to the faculty and staff at the USC History Center with whom we are developing a dynamic program on the history and contemporary significance of the 14th Amendment - our partners open doors to new possibilities and audiences.
Through these partnerships, exposure to more diverse perspectives allow Historic Columbia staff to explore new paradigms for the historic sites we manage. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the interpretive shift occurring at the Hampton-Preston site. As Katharine Allen, Research & Archives Manager, outlines in this edition of Historically Speaking, in May 2018, visitors will encounter a much broader range of voices at this urban estate and be able to dive deeper into the dreams and aspirations of those who lived and worked there. Access to this more expansive and integrated story is thanks in part to support from the Richland County Conservation Commission and SC Humanities, which funded conversations with and training by scholars from museums, historic sites and institutions of higher education across the state. While opening doors to new audiences by expanding the stories at historic sites is key to ensuring Historic Columbia is an organization committed to authenticity and openness, access to new audiences is also increased when those already connected and committed to the organization extend an invitation to others to participate. Our volunteer The Palladium Society (TPS) Board sets a high bar in this regard. In this issue, TPS staff liaison Lauren Mojkowski looks at how this young professional affiliate group, founded in 1996, has changed the way people perceive and engage with local history and preservation and, in the process, raise money for Historic Columbia!
Historically Speaking Winter 2018 | Volume 57 | Issue 2
President
Robert Lewis 1st Vice President
Gina Lesslie 2nd Vice President
Isa Mandel Treasurer
Jamie Keller Secretary
Mark Jones
The mission of Historic Columbia is to nurture, support and protect the historical and cultural heritage of Columbia and Richland County through programs of advocacy, education and preservation.
In This Issue 3 Preservation Update & Call for Entries 4-5 Hampton–Preston Update & Annual Fund 6 Reconstruction Symposium & Upcoming Events 7 The Palladium Society
As an organization, Historic Columbia has an open-door policy. We invite collaboration and operate transparently; however, it is the engagement with those beyond the historic threshold that makes Historic Columbia a more accessible, dynamic and relevant organization. As you enjoy the Winter 2018 edition of Historically Speaking, consider the doors that you might open into or for Historic Columbia.
Robin Waites
Executive Director Historic Columbia Welcomes Two New Members to the Board of Trustees Gary Gabel is an educator at the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Math in Hartsville. With more than 20 years of teaching experience and a background in STEM, Gary is an ally to Historic Columbia’s educational programming. Appointed to the board by Richland County Council, Gary will serve as one of two liaison’s for the county.
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Doug Quackenbush is a founding principal at Quackenbush Architects + Planners in Columbia. An active participant in the city’s design and planning community, Doug long been engaged with Historic Columbia. In years past he has helped to achieve the organization’s mission by serving on the Preservation Committee and chairing the Annual Awards Program.
HISTOR I C C OLUMB I A | NEWSLETTER
Visit us on the web: www.historiccolumbia.org
Preservation Update & Call for Entries The Benefits of Historic Status By Sean Stucker, Director of Facilities There has been recent concern over local historic district regulations in certain Columbia neighborhoods. Specifically, some Columbia citizens are concerned over the process owners must follow to renovate or make changes to their historic properties. We understand how certain regulations might be seen as challenging in the short term, but when dealing with historic properties, it’s important to focus on the long-term benefits. One major advantage for historic places is property value, plain and simple. National and local studies have shown that properties located in designated historic districts have values above average for their corresponding market. Since the value of your home is directly proportional to the value of your neighbor’s home, following consistent guidelines holds everyone to a higher standard.
Restoring your home’s windows not only maintains their historic integrity but can help cut your energy costs as well.
There is a savings value as well. For example, repairing existing historic wooden windows is a more cost effective and environmentally-friendly way of maintaining your home. While vinyl windows are guaranteed to begin failing within 20-30 years after installation, wood windows can be repaired and maintained, and as a result, can last for hundreds of years. In addition to the value arguments, historic societies and districts have a positive community impact because they give us a unique “sense of place.” Old neighborhoods and their buildings, serve as the tangible backdrop for stories and memories. There is a reason people fall in love with these kinds of places. There’s a reason Soda City Market started in one historic building (701 Whaley) and moved into the heart of a historic district where it (and its home district) has thrived. Every investment has pros and cons and should be considered through the lens of a cost-benefit analysis. In the case of our built and cultural heritage, the evidence favors preservation.
Call for Preservation Award Entries: Each year Historic Columbia recognizes local projects that exhibit excellence in the preservation field by maintaining or adding to the historical, architectural and cultural heritage of Columbia and Richland County. Through this program Historic Columbia also honors individuals who contribute to the advancement of historic preservation in the region. Submit your nomination today in one of the following categories:
Preservation/Restoration
Historically significant structures restored to their original design and function.
Adaptive Use
Structures rehabilitated with sensitivity to the historic fabric that function in a way that is different from its original intent. The Brennan Building was one of the recipients of the 2014 Preservation/Restoration award. Image credit GMaston Photo.
New Construction in a Historic Context
New buildings in an historic district adjacent to or within existing historic structures that complement the historic context.
Preservation Leadership
Nominations in this category will recognize an individual, corporation, governmental agency, community or neighborhood association that has contributed to the advancement of historic preservation in the region.
The Palmetto Compress was one of the recipients of the 2017 Adaptive Use award. Image credit Dressler Photography.
The South Carolina State Museum was the recipient of the 2014 New Construction in an Historic Context award.
Nominations are limited to projects completed within the last five years and located in Columbia and Richland County. Only completed projects will be considered. Nominations are due by Thursday, February 15, 2018. Nomination forms are available at historiccolumbia.org/preservation or by emailing lcarlisle@ historiccolumbia.org. W I N T E R 20 1 8
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Thirty-one enslaved people, including four families, were listed as part of Mary Hampton’s “Schedule of Property” when she died in 1863. Richland County, South Carolina, probate case files, estate no. 1156 (box 47), Mary Hampton (1863); Probate Court Clerk’s Office, Richland
This modern rendering by Lambert Architects depicts the mansion in 1850. The color scheme seen here is what the site will be returned to once capital improvements, funded by Richland County, are completed this spring. Image courtesy of Lambert Architects, Columbia, South Carolina
Hampton–Preston Interpretation Update Preparing for 200 Years at Hampton–Preston By Katharine Allen, Research & Archives Manager Historic Columbia is excited to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Hampton-Preston Mansion this spring by reopening its doors with a more comprehensive and inclusive story of the people who lived and worked at the property. The new interpretive framework will provide visitors with a variety of tools that will help them critically explore historical perspectives beyond the mansion’s antebellum owners and their planter-class peers.
One of the key successes of the re- interpretation has been the opportunity to humanize formerly underrepresented people. By placing names with faces, we better connect our current visitors with those who labored here in the past. Historic Columbia collection
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HISTOR I C C OLUMB I A | NEWSLETTER
These interpretive enhancements have dramatically built upon the foundational exhibit “Home to Many People,” which debuted 15 years ago and provided the first significant coverage of the roles enslaved people played at the site and in Columbia in general. The strongest concepts and stories from this exhibit have been further developed and integrated into both of the mansion’s main floors to ensure a more balanced representation of African and African American voices. Historic Columbia staff have spent the past several months gathering new archival sources and working with consultant, Dina Bailey, to develop this new interpretive framework, which features a diverse group of women, men and children who lived and worked at the property from the mansion’s construction in 1818 through the South Carolina Tricentennial celebration in 1970. Some of the changes include: •
21 new wayside signs installed throughout the property. The new signage focuses on topics, including the experiences of enslaved laborers, educational opportunities available to people of different classes and races, and key moments in the property’s past, as well as the evolution of the site’s historically renowned gardens.
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An updated and more immersive tour experience, which will allow visitors to travel through each room following different tour pathways, engage in hands-on activities and view primary documents on digital devices.
Historic Columbia staff work with consultant, Dina Bailey, on the re-interpretation at the Hampton-Preston site.
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Eight interpretive reader rails installed in the downstairs rooms, which highlight the often-unseen contributions and struggles of the enslaved women, men and children who labored at the site from 1823 through 1865. These panels show the duality of the black and white experience through a variety of lenses, including labor, sport, southern foodways, travel and art.
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Revamped and expanded interpretive content in the secondstory rooms, which will feature the Chicora college dormitory and three new interpretive spaces. The hallway will explore the themes of loss, mourning and memory using interpretive panels contextualizing Mary Boykin Chesnut’s diary and photographs as well as a panel documenting the struggle newly freed Africans and African Americans faced in trying to reclaim their ancestry and find lost relatives.
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A new transitional space in the southwest room, where visitors explore how memory and commemoration by figures, including Mary C. Simms Oliphant, a graduate of the College for Women (which was located at the property from 1890 until 1915), shaped how South Carolinians understand the past.
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The northwest room is partially reconceived as a sitting room in the Hampton-Preston Tourist Home, which opened in 1944, and shows the disparities in accommodations available to white and black travelers in the South prior to and during the Civil Rights Movement. The second portion of the room will feature objects from the South Carolina Tricentennial celebration, which prompted the mansion’s rehabilitation and transformation into a publicly accessible historic site in 1970.
Support Historic Columbia’s Annual Fund Although we continue to make progress on the work at the site, we need your help. This year’s Annual Fund will complement the rehabilitative work taking place at the site and will help restore the main entrance of the mansion to its early 19th-century look and feel. The project will include treating the plaster walls to replicate the look of cut stone that was an 1850s feature at the site. Another element of this initiative will be the addition of a wall-to-wall floor covering, which will give the entry hall a more period-appropriate look and feel. Please consider supporting the 2017-18 Annual Fund, your gift will help Historic Columbia to more realistically convey the period in which the estate functioned as one of the capital city’s most renown antebellum residences. To make a donation, please use the enclosed envelope, visit HistoricColumbia.org/AnnualFund or contact Wendi Spratt at wspratt@historiccolumbia. org or 252.7742 x12.
In addition to the interpretive changes taking place, work continues on Phase II of the site’s garden rehabilitation, generously funded by The Darnall W. and Susan F. Boyd Foundation, Inc. Please continue to follow the progress of this project by subscribing to our weekly e-newsletter, following us on social media or visiting us at HistoricColumbia.org. We hope to see you at the 200th anniversary celebration this spring!
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Reconstruction Symposium & Upcoming Events Preparing for 200 Years at Hampton–Preston Co-sponsored by: Historic Columbia and USC History Center By Katharine Allen, Research & Archives Manager The Fourteenth Amendment, enacted in 1868, was designed to secure the freedom of former enslaved Africans and African Americans by guaranteeing them the basic rights of citizenship and insuring equality before the law. It was the cornerstone of Reconstruction, became the foundation for the Civil Rights Movement, and has been central to the expansion of full constitutional rights and protection for all American citizens. In April 2018, Historic Columbia and the University of South Carolina’s History Center will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Fourteenth Amendment with a public symposium on Thursday, April 19 and Friday, April 20. Leading legal scholars and historians will participate in the day-and-ahalf-long symposium, which will provide a public forum for discussing the Amendment’s relevance in today’s world and reflect on what it means to be a citizen of the United States. The symposium will open on Thursday evening, April 19, at Allen University’s Chappelle Auditorium with a keynote address by Randall Kennedy on the history of the 14th Amendment. Kennedy, born in Columbia’s historic Waverly Neighborhood, is currently the Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School and a leading legal scholar, whose major areas of interest include race and the law, and civil rights and civil liberties. On Friday morning at the South Carolina State Museum, the topic will be “The Fourteenth Amendment: From Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Act.” During lunch, David Levering Lewis will deliver a keynote address on W.E.B Du Bois, reflecting on the 150th anniversary of Du Bois’s birth, and the significance of Du Bois’s history in the decades-long struggle of African Americans to secure the guarantees of legal equality and citizenship. During the afternoon session, panelists will consider the significance of the Fourteenth Amendment in relationship to the rights of American citizens to legal equality, without regard to sex, gender, physical ability and other categories previously beyond the reach of such constitutional guarantee. The afternoon panel will be followed by tours and a reception at the Museum of Reconstruction at the Woodrow Wilson Family Home. The symposium keynote lecture and panel discussions are free; however, the keynote luncheon on Friday is a ticketed event ($30/person). To learn more and register, visit historiccolumbia.org, call (803) 252.1770 x 23 or email reservations@historiccolumbia.org. Reconstruction’s Legacy is sponsored by:
USC School of Law, USC Civil Rights Center
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HISTOR I C C OLUMB I A | NEWSLETTER
This iconic Harper’s Weekly newspaper cover, titled “The First Vote,” was drawn by A. R. Waud in 1867. Depicting African American men voting in favor of a new southern state constitution “…on the basis of equal rights to all,” the image is one of the most recognized from the Reconstruction era. Historic Columbia collection, HCF 2013.10.1
Tour Historic Kensington this Spring Saturday, April 21 9 a.m., 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. Historic Columbia is pleased to partner with International Paper and Preserve SC to offer tours of one of Richland County’s most architecturally dynamic historic sites. Recently rehabilitated in painstaking detail, Kensington Mansion will be open to the public for guided tours this year. Construction on the plantation home began in 1851 and was completed in 1853. The design is unique in its predominantly Italianate elaboration wedged into a plain farmhouse. The grandeur of its style and size reveals the great wealth that enslaved labor brought to its original owner, Colonel Richard Singleton, one of Lower Richland County’s most prominent cotton planters. In addition to the main house, the site includes the original kitchen building and one dwelling that was occupied by enslaved workers. The latter is in pilot stages of preservation and will not be open to the public. Tours will be offered at 9 a.m., 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. on April 21. Tickets are $30 for the general public and $25 for members of Historic Columbia and Preserve SC. To purchase tickets, visit historiccolumbia.org, call (803) 252.1770 x 23 or email reservations@historiccolumbia.org.
Palladium Makes an Impact and Lasting Connections By Grace Salter, The Palladium Society Vice President
If you’ve raised a glass and placed a silent auction bid from the lawn at Robert Mills at Bluegrass, Bidding and BBQ, gone behind-the-scenes at a Renovation Rodeo or tasted some of Columbia’s finest chili at the annual Chili Cook Off— you know the fun that comes with being a member of The Palladium Society. However, this group of professionals is about more than parties and tours. This group is about forging productive friendships and making a positive impact on our community.
Guests enjoy getting social and networking at The Palladium Society-hosted events.
The Palladium Society is a volunteer, board-run arm of Historic Columbia made up of nearly 250 members who support the organization’s mission. Each year, funds raised through Palladium-hosted events fund specific initiatives of Historic Columbia. In the past five years, Palladium events have raised more than $100,000 for initiatives from educational programming to capital improvements. Recent projects supported in part by Palladium include the interpretative enhancements at the Mann-Simons Site and the gardens at the Woodrow Wilson Family Home. Plus, annual Palladium membership brings in more than $15,000 to support Historic Columbia’s mission. Members of Palladium can see your contributions make a difference up-close. The Palladium Society is about connecting community members to one The Palladium Society raised nearly $15,000 at the 14th annual Bluegrass, Bidding and BBQ. another and building lasting relationships. When you join, you have the chance to network, meet people who share likeminded interests and participate in a variety of leadership positions. For me personally, I have met many talented people who share a similar passion for history, preservation and our capital city, and who have become some of my closest friends. There are many opportunities to get involved as a member, which is such a unique feature to this group. With the Palladium Society, you also can see Columbia through a different lens and learn much more about the community through unique events, including Behind-the-Scenes tours of commercial properties and Renovation Rodeos (tours that go into newly renovated historic homes in the Midlands). You receive free admission to the historic house museums and free or discounted admission to events and programs hosted by Historic Columbia. The value of a Palladium membership far exceeds the investment to join. As a Columbia native, I am proud to be part of an organization that makes a difference and shares the story of Columbia’s rich history. I hope you’ll join me in becoming a Palladium member. Want to learn more and get involved? It’s easy! Visit HistoricColumbia.org/membership or call (803) 252-7742 ext. 15.
20th Annual Palladium Society Chili Cook Off Saturday, Feb. 24 | Music Farm Columbia This year, The Palladium Society’s Annual Chili Cook Off turns the big 2-0! This annual fundraiser is one of Historic Columbia’s most popular events and features nearly two dozen chili recipes, local celebrity judges, cash prizes and live music. Tickets include chili samples, beer, wine, live music and unlimited house chili.
Chili cookers come together to celebrate their victory at the 19th annual Chili Cook Off.
This year, we’ll bring back the popular VIP ticket option, which provides an extra hour to sample chili and mingle with the cookers and judges before the crowds arrive, as well as access to a VIP bar all night. This year’s cook off will be held on Saturday, Feb.24 at the Music Farm Columbia. Get your tickets at HistoricColumbia.org/Chili. W I N T E R 20 1 8
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Between March 1944 and 1966, tourists and longer-term boarders lodged at the former Hampton-Preston estate. If guests lost their keys to the site’s 25 rooms, pressboard or plastic fobs guaranteed their return through the United States Post Office. Historic Columbia collection, HCF 2017.15.1-3