News

Historic Columbia Has Its Best Fiscal Year to Date

(Columbia, SC) - The Historic Columbia Foundation posted its best fiscal year yet in 2006-07, due in no small part to a number of large strategic gifts that helped it realize more than 60 percent growth in both membership and corporate contributions from fiscal year 2005-06.

Each year the nonprofit foundation works to preserve and protect Columbia’s notable architectural heritage. The organization maintains a collection of more than 6,500 artifacts and manages several historic homes, including the Hampton-Preston Mansion, the Woodrow Wilson Family Home and the Robert Mills House.

With net assets of more than $2.3 million, in the coming year the foundation will begin implementing its ambitious Cultural Landscape Master Plan, which includes preservation of the Modjeska Simkins House, the installation of the Seibels Garden, pedestrian links between all five of the foundation-run historic sites and plans for a garden district downtown.

At its annual meeting last week at the Seibels House, the Historic Columbia Foundation presented its yearly fiscal report as well as its Awards of Excellence. Winners were: Granby Mill Alliance, Whaley Street Neighborhood Association and We Are Olympia (Celia Mann Award); the Richland County Conservation Commission (Woodrow Wilson Award), Free Times (The Big Apple Award); Dr. Robert Ackerman, author of Wade Hampton III (Helen Kohn Hennig Award); and BlueCross Blue Shield of South Carolina (Ainsley Hall Award). The awards, which were implemented in 2002, recognize groups and individuals who have made a significant contribution to the preservation of local history in Columbia and Richland County.

— Article by Ron Aiken of the Columbia, SC Free Times

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