Columbia Downtown Historic Resource Survey Final Survey Report

Richey, Staci; Brandt, Lydia

From Project Summary: "The City of Columbia initiated this survey with matching grant funds from the SC Department of Archives and History. The purpose was to conduct a survey of historic resources located in downtown Columbia, updating the 1993 survey by John Bryan, Ph.D., with special attention to Modern buildings built from 1945-1975. The project's deliverables included an historic context for the development of Columbia's built environment and recommendations for resources that make up the dense downtown area currently under pressure for development and alterations and help the city with future planning and preservation efforts. This survey updated the 1993 survey by capturing historic and Modern resources within the current survey database used by the SCDAH. It is the first attempt at a survey of the city's Modern architectural within the SCDAH survey system. As these buildings make up a good portion of the fabric of Columbia's downtown, this survey provides a generous historic context for the many buildings constructed in the city since 1950. It also offers recommendations for approaching the designation or preservation of these resources, many of which have already undergone dramatic changes. This project is also part of the City of Columbia's ongoing efforts to document its historic resources. ...The City of Columbia is in the process of updating its inventory of historic resources. The last survey of downtown Columbia was completed in 1993, and much of the city's building stock has since reached the fifty-year mark. This makes many resources newly eligible for survey and potential designation. One of the goals of this project, therefore was to capture the many mid-twentieth century buildings that represent the Modern movements in architecture. The survey will hopefully help the city understand what resources exist, which ones are potentially significant, what changes they have endured over time, and which architects were involved with helping to shape Columbia's built environment. Survey data captures all historic buildings within the survey boundaries that have not been surveyed before, and this data can help the City and SCDAH with determinations of eligibility for local listings or for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). This survey also identified areas for further study and survey, with recommendations for historic preservation planning." Funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, Department of Archives and History, administered by the State, Tribal, Local Plans and Grants division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior (grant number P19AF00194).

Columbia Downtown Historic Resource Survey Final Survey Report

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