1516 Richland Street
Built by 1913 for John Carroll and Della Richards Coulter, this Neoclassical structure’s massive Corinthian columns, decorative swags, and dentil moldings evokes the grandeur of the region's antebellum mansions. Its early 20th-century features, including its one-over-one windows and porte cochere for cars, reveal its true date of construction.
John Coulter, a native of North Carolina, incorporated Black & Coulter with Edger O. Black. Together they designed and built an estimated 700 homes in Columbia during the early 1900s and also aided in the construction Camp Jackson during World War I. His wife, Della, a native of Georgia, graduated from Columbia College for Women in 1914 and received her masters degree at the University of South Carolina. From 1919 until 1930 she served as head of the department of biology at Chicora College and later held a similar position at Columbia College. The Coulters regularly rented out rooms, and during the Depression they added a kitchen to the second story. After John’s death in a car-trolley accident in May 1935, Della sold the house to Isabelle and Carl Oehmig and moved back to Georgia, where she lived until her death in 1942.