From the South Carolina Historic Preservation Office, a long list of sites added to the National Historic Register.
The following properties have been recently listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Click on a link to view photographs and access the nomination form for the property.
Holman’s Barber Shop in Columbia was listed in the National Register September 10, 2021. Holman’s Barber Shop is significant for its association with Black barber shops’ and beauty salons’ important functions within African American communities, and its connection with Columbia’s segregation history. Operating for over seventy years within Lower Waverly, Holman’s Barber Shop reflects Black barber shops’ vital roles within local African American communities. Holman’s provided Black Columbians and other African Americans with an alternative public space where patrons could meet, freely converse, and receive quality, convenient service without fear of the harassment and degradation that often awaited them in similar white-controlled establishments. The operation of first Ret’s Beauty Box and later the Modernistic Beauty Salon in the other half of the building provides a parallel story of beauty care, social history, and upward economic mobility for Black women.
The Philip C. Heiden House located in Lake City was listed in the National Register September 10, 2021. It is significant as an excellent and rare residential example of the Streamline Moderne Style in Lake City. Designed by Heiden in 1938, the small house embodies the basic tenants of Streamline Moderne architecture, including the flat roof, smooth exterior render, and soft, rounded corners. Horizontality is highlighted throughout the building by bands of ceramic glazed tiles and metal casement corner windows set within wide openings. These architectural features celebrate the aerodynamic design principles of the Streamline Moderne and create a distinctive street-front façade. Select nautical motifs such as porthole windows are incorporated throughout the house.
The Aiken County Hospital in Aiken was listed in the National Register on September 13, 2021. The Aiken County Hospital is significant in the areas of Health/Medicine and Politics/Government in Depression-era Aiken and in Architecture as a representative example of the Colonial Revival style. Constructed in 1936 with Public Works Administration (PWA) funding, with a large rear addition built in 1950 and a separate Nurses’ Home added in 1941, the buildings exemplify architect Willis Irvin’s mastery of the Colonial Revival style and the county government’s desire to maintain an image of the “Old South” while showing fiscal restraint during the Great Depression. Following years of fundraising and attempts to build a hospital for Aiken, the present structure was realized in 1936 with the assistance of Works Progress Administration and Duke Endowment funds, replacing an older frame building on the site.
A segment of the South Carolina Railroad near Aiken was listed in the National Register September 23, 2021. It is significant at the national level under Criterion A: Transportation, Criterion C: Engineering, and Criterion D: Archaeology. The South Carolina Railroad (also called the Charleston and Hamburg Railroad) was constructed by the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company between 1830 and 1833. It was one of the earliest railroads in the United States and upon its completion was the longest railroad in the world. The first long railroad designed to be powered totally by steam, the rail line was constructed with innovative techniques over its entire 136-mile span in less than three years. This segment of the railroad was among the last portions constructed and was abandoned in 1853. It also included the track’s original inclined plane, a major feat of engineering that was one of only three such rail features to be built in the United States during the early 1830s.
Robert Mills Manor was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on September 24, 2021. The 11.7-acre, United States Housing Authority (USHA)-funded and -planned low-income housing complex is located within the Charleston Historic District. Constructed in two phases (Robert Mills Manor in 1938-1939 and Robert Mills Manor Extension in 1940-1941), the public housing complex was part of a nationwide, joint federal-local effort to provide low-income housing for poor American families. It includes 26 extant two- and three-story, multi-family residential buildings; three antebellum dwellings preserved and incorporated into the complex; and the ca. 1833 Robert Mills-designed former Marine Hospital, which was rehabilitated to serve as the Housing Authority of the City of Charleston Administrative Building.
The Saluda Apartments in Columbia were listed in the National Register September 24, 2021. The three buildings that comprise the Saluda Apartments are remarkably intact examples of Columbia’s response to its housing shortage in the post-World War II era. Located within the Wales Garden neighborhood just south of Five Points, the small apartment complex stands out from the typical architectural styles of the community. Insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the complex provided twenty-eight affordable apartments for the families of returning white servicemen in one of Columbia’s established neighborhoods. The decision to employ a Modern design reflects the goals of both Modernism and the federal government, as the buildings could be affordably and quickly constructed due to their lack of ornamentation and simple, repeating patterns.
Zion Baptist Church in Columbia was listed in the National Register September 24, 2021. Zion Baptist Church is significant in the areas of Ethnic Heritage: Black, Social History, Health/Medicine, and Politics/Government, and in the area of Architecture. Located in downtown Columbia, Zion served as a vital center of activity for the African American community from the building’s construction in 1916 through the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. For decades, the church was a key site for local activism in the long Black freedom struggle, used by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Richland County Citizens Committee, and other local organizations. It was also an important site for community health, including as the original location of a clinic opened by South Carolina’s first female African American medical doctor, Dr. Matilda Evans. Zion was also the starting place for one of South Carolina’s most significant civil rights demonstrations, when students marched from the church to the South Carolina State House where they were arrested en masse, leading to the Edwards v. South Carolina (1963) Supreme Court decision. The church building is an important local example of Romanesque Revival ecclesiastical architecture in Columbia.
Colonial Village Apartments in Columbia was listed in the National Register September 24, 2021. Colonial Village is a relatively intact example of a garden apartment housing project constructed on the eve of World War II to alleviate Columbia’s housing shortage. As an example of an early FHA-insured housing project in Columbia, the twenty-building complex is significant under Criterion A for Social History and Government and under Criterion C for Architecture as a good example of its type, representing a suburban take on the design ideals the FHA established in the mid-1930s. Built for white residents, the complex embraces the Colonial Revival style, underscoring the title of the apartment development, and features nearly ten acres of land to create a sense of suburban living. The complex features greenspaces, typical in garden apartments, that allowed tenants to gather and enjoy outdoor activities.