1305 Westminster Drive
2025 Palladium Tour | A Century of Style
1305 Westminster Drive
This asymmetrical Greek Revival style house was built in 1941 for Wyatt Aiken (1887-1971) and Clelia Gray Taylor (1885-1962). Although the exterior courtyard wall and garage, designed by Andrew Kearns, were constructed about 1960, they do not alter the fundamental architectural characteristics of the original house. Original finishings, including the bronze banister finial, were likely hand-selected by Clelia's sister and neighbor, renowned designer Dora Gray.
The Taylors, who married in 1917, likely chose Westminster Drive as the site of their home due to its proximity to Clelia’s sister, the prominent interior designer Dora Gray (1892-1964). Dora and her husband, Thomas Crouch (1879-1965), took up residence at 1325 Westminster in 1935; Dora surely contributed to the interior design work of this residence six years later. The Taylors had no children but busied themselves with professional pursuits. Clelia initially taught at McMaster School, and Wyatt was an editor of The Columbia Record. In 1936, he founded Carolina Window Shade & Awning Company (later The Shade Shop), and Clelia worked as a secretary for the business.
Until about 1955, 1305 Westminster played host to meetings of the Ann Pamela Cunningham Chapter of the DAR and the Current Literature Club, which also counted neighbor Jane K. Simons (2615 Stratford Road) as a regular member. Clelia’s aunt, Dora Gray Phillips (1860-1951), also resided here the last seven years of her life. Clelia passed away in 1962, and city directories indicate that about this time, her brother-in-law’s half-sister, Minnie Mae Crouch Coleman (1887-1971), purchased the property. It remained in the Coleman family until 1980. Further research is needed to determine whether the Taylors or Colemans planned the 1960s renovation by Andrew Kearn that added a detach garage, multi-light porch enclosure, and brick-and-stucco wall.
In 1980, Wade Hampton Oliver (1930-2015) and his wife, Ellen May (1934-2012), became the third family in residence. Wade, whose namesake Wade Hampton III was also his great-grandfather and owner of the plantation Diamond Hill that became the Forest Hills neighborhood, owned Hampton Kitchens and later Dietary Equipment Company, which is still in business today. Renovations performed by the Olivers in 1985 remained intact until the current owners, Sharon and Michael Sawyer, purchased the property from trustees of the Olivers’ estate in 2015 and undertook a complete home restoration beginning in that year using Scott and James Elliott of Elliott Builders. Pam Plowden (Pulliam Morris) oversaw the kitchen design and finishes and sourced many of the new and antique pieces seen throughout the home. The courtyard and landscaping renovation design was by Jeffrey Hall with The Swept Yard, with Mark Schimmoeller at Southern Vistas completing the work.
In 2018, the Sawyers renovated the detached garage, using Daniel and Kristin Hudson with Hometeam Renovations, with Pam Plowden again serving as interior designer.
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