Orchard House
1430 Richland Street

This unique, two-story, wood frame house dates to 1875. The symmetrical structure features characteristics associated with the Italianate style, an architectural expression popular from 1840-1880. Octagonal piers and ornamental brackets decorate the home's two-tier, façade-wide porch, which features cast iron balusters, a rarity in Columbia. Though several additions have been made to the rear of the property, the building's Richland Street elevation appears essentially the same as it did over 120 years ago.

William E. Orchard purchased this lot from John C.B. Smith on June 21, 1875. Within a year the house was at least under construction, if not finished. A longstanding professor of music at the Columbia Female Academy, Orchard also was a popular local musician. Before relocating to Richland Street he had lived with his family on the corner of Taylor and Sumter streets. Following Sherman's occupation of Columbia, the professor gave a scathing deposition of what he witnessed. Orchard's accusing statements must be weighed against his own bitterness: his Taylor Street home had been burned though he was able to save the Columbia Female Academy from what he felt was certain destruction.

Following his death, Orchard deeded the home to Helen Z. Orchard, but by 1895, the Laval family owned it. In 1928, Jacob Coon Reynolds bought the property. Upon his death ten years later his widow began taking boarders. Her son inherited the home at her passing and made considerable renovations. By 1976, the building was used as a boarding house, with the owner's family occupying an apartment on the bottom floor. The once single-family dwelling was now divided into two other apartments on the first floor and four more upstairs. Currently, the building houses the White and White Law practice, which renovated the structure in the mid 1990s.

Staci Richey and John Sherrer

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