Renovation Rodeo | Wales Garden
Friday, June 14th 2024
Palladium presented Renovation Rodeo | Wales Garden on Thursday, June 13, 2024, from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. Over 40 guests toured this circa-1931 property while enjoying beer from Peak Drift Brewing Company, wine courtesy of Republic National Distributing Company, and delicious food from Something Small Catering. This event was proudly sponsored by Courtney Miller with Coldwell Banker and Mark Tibshrany with Guild Mortgage.
Throughout the year, Palladium features a property that has undergone—or is undergoing—an impressive renovation. From tiny 1940s bungalows to turn-of-the-century mansions, and everything in between, these events give you a chance to tour properties, learn about their renovation, and have a great time doing it. And they're FREE for our Palladium members!
537/535 Santee Avenue was constructed in 1931 by the Santee Holding Company for $5,000. Its construction came after a large culvert had been installed in 1927 in Five Points to improve drainage and lower flooding risk. After the culvert was built, much more development sprouted up along Saluda and in the lower edges of Wales Garden. Santee Holding Company, a speculative development firm, was founded just a few months prior by J.C. Coulter and E.W. Crouch. Coulter was a well-known builder whose previous partnership with Edgar O. Black led to the construction of an estimated 900 residences in the city.
This home was built as a two-family brick veneer apartment with a five-room apartment upstairs and downstairs. It is located near other apartment-style buildings designed by Santee Holding Company around the same year. There are also several other properties in Columbia that have a similar design, all designed by this firm, including in Melrose Heights and Shandon. This home shifted to a single-family home sometime in the 1960s.
What the records tell us about 537/535 Santee Avenue:
1927: A large culvert was installed in Five Points to improve drainage and lower flooding risk. This resulted in the development of Saluda Avenue and the northern boundaries of Wales Garden.
April 25, 1931: The City Development Company deeded lots “twenty-nine (29), thirty (30) and thirty-one (31) in Block ‘C’” to the Santee Holding Company for $2,400. The deed does not indicate any improvements on the property. This real estate transfer is later referenced in articles in the Columbia Record (May 3, 1931) and The State (July 26, 1931).
April 26, 1931: The State reported that a building permit had been issued to “Santee Holding Company for two-family brick veneer apartment at 535-537 Sumter Street, $5,000.” Sumter Street was likely an error, as two months later the city’s plumbing records note 535 Santee Avenue as “new apt[ment] new sewer.” The owner/agent listed is J.C. Coulter, one of two individuals who chartered the Santee Holding Company on April 20, 1931.
August 12, 1931: The Santee Holding Company transferred property to Sophie B. McNulty for $5 and other valuable considerations. The deed conveyed, “all that certain piece, parcel or lot of land with improvements… on the western side of Santee Avenue, between Congaree and Waccamaw Avenues, in Wales Gardens… being and embracing unit lots numbers twenty-nine, thirty, and thirty-one (29, 30 and 31) in Block ‘C’.” This was later reported in the Columbia Record (August 23, 1931). However, the McNultys rented out the property as two separate units, 535 (upstairs) and 537 (downstairs). An example of this appeared in the November 10, 1931 issue of The State, which advertised “FOR RENT-…537 Santee Avenue, new five-room furnace heated brick apartment, downstairs $55.” According to the 1950 Sanborn, the structure still carried both addresses; it likely became a single-family residence (537 Santee) sometime during or after the 1960s.
October 20, 1931: Ad placed for first floor apartment at “new” 537 Santee, by E.W. Seibels & Sons
March 17, 1940: Five-room apartment listed in the paper
1955 to 1964: Numerous “Unfurnished” listings in the paper for the five-room apartment/house
June 1961: Last mention of 535 Santee Avenue in newspapers
April 5, 1990: Notice that Sloan Roofing would be re-roofing the home for a cost of $2,160
Known tenants or owners, address, and date of record: P. M. Burdell (537 Santee, 1933); Mrs. Martha Ann Finklea (537 Santee, 1935); Mrs. L. M. Milling (535 Santee, 1937); Mr. Butler (525 Santee, 1938); Mrs. Marion P. Burdell (537 Santee, 1938); Caldwell Hardy Oliver and Ealanor Oliver (535 Santee, 1940); William R. Vorus and Mary Ware (537 Santee, 1940); Mr. and Mrs. James Byron Norment Jr., James B. Norment III, and Mary Honor Norment (b. 1947) (537 Santee, 1942-1949?); Mr. and Mrs. M.C. Werness, Maurice Werness (son, attended Dreher High School) (537 Santee, 1948); Mable Prickett (1969); Terry Hook (1972); William R. Hunt (2001-2006); Selina R. Hunt McKinney and William R. McKinney Jr. (2006-2011); Annie and Robert Wilson Jr. (2011-present).
HC Connection! Caldwell Hardy Oliver and his wife Eleanor, whose marriage received coverage in The State in 1937, lived at 535 Santee in 1940. Oliver’s draft number appeared in the newspaper October 25, 1940. Interestingly, Oliver, a local architect, rendered as-built drawings in November 1940 for the “Chicora College Property,” which today offers us tremendous insight into what the Hampton-Preston Mansion and the former college dormitories that formerly stood on the estate looked like before they were demolished three decades later.
Similar examples of this home can be found in neighborhoods across Columbia, including:
Melrose Heights:
Shirley Street: 1316
Shandon:
Monroe Street: 2919
Wales Garden
Congaree Avenue: 517
Saluda Avenue: 610, 613, 617, 620, 621
Santee Avenue: 523, 531, 537
1950 Sanborn Map
Renovation Crew:
Poolhouse Architect: Jeff Lewis, AIA
Poolhouse Contractor: Eric Sparkes, ECS Construction
Interior Designer: Christy Davis, Christy Davis Interiors
Main House Interior Renovation Contractor: Keith Phaneuf, Phaneuf Construction
Closet Designer: Alexis Phaneuf, The Closet Factory
Pre-renovation and renovation progress images
About Wales Garden:
The Wales Garden neighborhood was planned by the City Development Company (CDC), which in 1912 purchased 80 acres of a plantation formerly owned by Theodore Stark, one of Columbia’s mayors during Reconstruction. (Stark’s Hill formerly stood at the end of Pendleton Street.) The first of 912 land parcels was sold in December 1915.
Early investors were permitted to purchase as many lots as they wished to create the lot size they desired, so there’s a great deal of variety in lot sizes throughout the neighborhood.
There were strict covenants attached to the deeds for early Wales Garden lots, such as no one-story houses, no house costing less than $7,500, no front yard fences, no retaining walls, and no billboards. These restrictions had eased by the time 535-537 Santee was built, though. One restriction that did not change was the racial covenant, which specified that the home could not be sold or rented to a person of African descent. This clause remained in effect until the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968.
Many avenues in the neighborhood were named after South Carolina rivers. This is fitting, as the development of the Wales Garden neighborhood depended on effective management of the Rocky Branch Creek, part of the watershed of the Congaree River. This creek is, of course, why Five Points historically has been prone to flooding.
About Five Points:
The land that would become Five Points was not buildable until new suburbs prompted significant improvements to the area. The establishment of neighboring Shandon in 1891 helped motivate the city’s taming of Rocky Branch Creek, and the eventual grading and paving of Harden Street. With paved roads, safeguards against flooding, and residential neighborhoods expanding to the east and south (like Wales Garden), the first Five Points businesses appeared at the end of the 1910s.
Much of Five Points was built between 1919 and 1967, piecemeal by various real estate speculators. Two star-shaped, five-point intersections give the town center its name and were outliers in the city’s otherwise orthogonal 1786 grid. Five Points became the commercial center for the surrounding neighborhoods.
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The above research was compiled by members of the Palladium Board education committee with assistance from Historic Columbia's research staff.
Event images courtesy of Historic Columbia. Renovation images courtesy of Robert Wilson. 2011 CMLS images courtesy Franklin Jones of Coldwell Banker and CMLS.
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Palladium members don't just learn about Columbia's past - they have a say in its future. Our fundraising events support Historic Columbia's important preservation and advocacy work, which in turn helps preserve the charm and vitality of the city we call home.