Visit Historic Columbia’s New “Test Kitchen”
Wednesday, January 15th 2025
A New Vision for HC’s First Museum
Over the last decade, Historic Columbia (HC) staff, scholars, and stakeholders have reinterpreted four of the organization’s five museum sites, beginning with the reopening of the Woodrow Wilson Family Home as the Museum of the Reconstruction Era in 2014. The stories HC shares range from the realities of slavery at the Hampton-Preston Mansion to the role of media in the civil rights movement at the Modjeska Monteith Simkins House. However, descriptions of our sites’ historic uses and occupants still serve as a primary method to connect with visitors.
If a site’s historic uses are key to its interpretation, how then might HC reimagine the Robert Mills House, which was designed by Mills as a private residence for Ainsley and Sarah Hall but never occupied as such? As part of its 2022–2025 strategic plan, Historic Columbia posed this question to supporters and scholars while also identifying ways to capitalize on the site’s location next to the gift shop, where all visitors begin their museum experience on HC’s campus.
Working with design firm HealyKohler, HC staff used this feedback to finalize a new interpretive plan: The Robert Mills House: A Witness to Many Lives. With the exception of community and museum gallery spaces on the upper floor, this plan primarily relies on eight immersive rooms that will explore both the building’s intended use and historic functions. These rooms will represent its earliest days in which Ainsley and Sarah Hall and the people they enslaved would have occupied this property, its actual use as the site of religious institutions with varying missions and needs, and finally it’s transformation into Columbia’s premiere historic house museum in the 1960s. A series of first-person audio stops featuring storytelling by individuals with connections to the site will tie these spaces together.
This ambitious concept will allow for self-guided tours and greater visitor accessibility on a daily basis. However, before embarking on a capital campaign for a project of this magnitude, staff recognize the need to gather evaluative data on this approach to better understand the possibilities and potential pitfalls of such a radical shift in interpretation.
Heat & Hardship: The Hidden Labor of Enslaved Cooks
With funding from South Carolina Humanities, Historic Columbia is proud to announce the opening of Heat & Hardship: The Hidden Labor of Enslaved Cooks, which will serve as our “test case” for this interpretive plan. This exhibit reimagines one of the Robert Mills House’s most popular spaces, the warming kitchen, through the installation of hands-on activities that incorporate touch and smell. Rather than solely interacting with wall panels, visitors will listen to first-person perspectives, made available with the Dutch technology Guide-ID, that contextualize the experiences of three individuals associated with the site in 1823. Hear Robert Mills explain his views on design and slavery, Sarah Hall fret with paranoia about how her food is prepared, and an enslaved cook describe her longing for separated family as she memorizes yet another recipe.
Test Your Senses
Historic Columbia invites you to book a visit to the Robert Mills House in the coming months (And if you're an HC member, remember that admission to all our historic house museums is always FREE!). The new experience begins with a traditional, guided tour of the primary and upper floors. Visitors are then invited to the basement floor, where they are invited to take a seat at a kitchen worktable and explore interactives, such as identifying spices by smell and learning about the human cost of bringing these ingredients to Columbia in 1823. This experience is anchored by our new Guide-ID audio wands, which ensure the museum remains a phone-free (and distraction-free) space.
Historic Columbia staff values your input, and we hope that you join us this spring at the Robert Mills House. By taking the tour and our five-minute survey, you are playing a vital role in the next phase of this National Historic Landmark site.
To inform the storytelling found at each audio stop, Historic Columbia Curator Rebecca Woodruff pulled inspiration from numerous primary sources. Records indicate that Ainsley Hall willed seven enslaved men and women—Charlotte, Henry, Joe, Lydia, Matilda, Nancy, and Peter—to his wife, Sarah. While their names survive, their thoughts, duties, and futures are lost to the historical record.
Staff identified creative solutions for the room’s hands-on activities, such as cutting boards and mats, to keep visitors as immersed in the setting as possible.
Project Team
CURATORIAL: Rebecca Woodruff (project lead), Katharine Allen, Rachel Gregor, Rachel Ward
GRAPHICS: Emily Brown
IN-HOUSE FABRICATION: Kevin Jennings, John Sherrer
ANIMATION: Furman Fortner
ACTORS: Aaliyah Broadwater: Charlotte, Carly Siegel: Nancy & Lydia, David Alexander: Joe & Peter, Jessica Crowe: Sarah Hall, Sam Moore: Henry
VOICE ACTORS: Em Eldridge: Sarah Hall, Jay Hazen: Robert Mills, Ebony McKinley: Enslaved Cook
SCHOLAR REVIEW & ADVISEMENT: Jill Found, PhD, Nicole Maskiell, PhD, Rabbi Meir Muller, PhD, Mark Smith, PhD
Behind the Scenes: The Making of "Heat & Hardship"
-
Before image: Robert Mills House Warming Kitchen, May 2024
-
HC staff, including lead staff Becca Woodruff (center) and project consultant Jill Found (left) review a mock-up of the exhibit, October 2024
-
Mock-up of exhibit elements, October 2024
-
HC staff talk through a mock-up interactive with project consultant Jill Found, October 2024
-
DIrector of Buildings Kevin Jennings creating a replica flour bin, October 2024
-
Collections Manager Rachel Gregor and Collections Assistant Rachel Ward move exhibit furniture into place, December 2024
-
Director of Preservation John Sherrer reinforcing chairs for the exhibit, January 2025
Learn about Our
House Tours
How does 200 years of history fit under five roofs? Come see as we take you on a journey through our five historic house museums in the heart of the Robert Mills Historic District. Our houses explore the early 19th through mid-20th centuries. Semi-guided historic house tours are offered Wednesday through Sunday.