1400 Westminster Drive
2025 Palladium Tour | A Century of Style
1400 Westminster Drive
Completed circa 1903 for attorney Benjamin L. Abney as a one-story bungalow, today’s Georgian Revival mansion received its second story and brick veneer in 1927, when seller Joseph Walker required new owners Ethel F. and William M. Williams to either remodel or build a new home that matched the size and aesthetic of new residences in the neighborhood. Although more investigation is needed, the center hall and four main rooms likely remain unchanged in size—if not use—from Abney’s time in residence 100 years ago.
In May 1903, Southern Railway lawyer Benjamin L. Abney (1859-1921) purchased “all of the Home Place of General Wade Hampton, now deceased” from the latter’s executors. Three years later, he added to the former Diamond Hill Plantation by purchasing more than ten adjoining acres to the east from Sarah Dorsett. While it is possible the oldest portion of today's 1400 Westminster was completed by late 1903, the earliest record of Abney living on “Camden rd” (today’s Forest Drive) is Columbia’s 1906 city directory.
After living at “Abney Park” for five years, Abney moved into the home of his cousin, Cole L. Blease (1869-1942), who at the time was beginning his tenure as South Carolina’s 90th governor. Abney lived with the Bleases until his death in 1921. The Bleases subsequently filed suit against Abney’s estate in the amount of $100,000, claiming “said decedent was sick, nervous and irritable demanded and required tactful, difficult and constant care, attention, service and nursing,” and further that, according to Cole Blease, Abney “came to my home one day to dine and never did leave.”
Abney, who never married, was known to be a difficult man—for example, his correspondence in 1909 with the Men of Mark series editor quickly progressed from ignoring the project to deriding the supplied biographical sketch as “full of errors” and “not in good taste,” before finally demanding the editor include his rewritten sketch (seen above). However, prior to his illness Abney was known as a shrewd businessman who leveraged knowledge about the private affairs of his clients, including the Hampton family, injured mill workers, and later mill owners themselves, to amass significant wealth for himself. The jury agreed with some of Blease’s claims and awarded plaintiff Lille Blease $25,000.
Abney’s brother and executor, John R. Abney, spent several years overseeing the estate’s dissolution, which included cash payments to Blease as well as numerous family members. He donated Abney’s library of 12,000 medical, historical, and literary books to the University of South Carolina, and he also advertised the 93-acre “Abney Park” for rent, and then for sale in 1923. In advertisements, the main residence is referred to as a “bungalow with porches around entire house,” that “featured four very large rooms and spacious hall." Abney Park also came with an additional servant’s house, a six-car garage below a chauffeur’s room, and a large stable. John Abney also had a plat of the property made in 1923 in preparation for its sale.
In June 1925, real estate developer and cotton broker Joseph Walker (1884-1983) and his business partners purchased Abney Park for $46,800 to serve as the site of a new venture, Forest Hills. Walker’s vision for the neighborhood was that of a secluded oasis adjacent to yet shielded from the city and laid out by expert landscape architect Harlan Kelsey (1872-1958). According to Walker, this upscale suburb was meant “for the better sort”—a sentiment later enforced through restrictive covenants drafted by his company, Forest Hills Inc., which he incorporated in 1926 alongside his half-brother, Cosmo L. Walker (1898-1958) and friend, J. Earle Davis (1892-1967)—both among the earliest residents of the neighborhood. Like other upscale neighborhoods, these covenants ranged from the price a residence must cost (at least $8,500) to the exclusion of those of “African descent” from buying or renting in the neighborhood.
Even Abney’s grand, wood-frame bungalow was not immune to these restrictions. When Walker sold Lots 17 and 18 of Block G—today’s 1400 Westminster Drive— to Ethel F. Williams (1885-1957) in February 1927, the deed noted that, “this sale is made to the grantee herein for the purpose of Building a home there on construction of which is to commence within nine months of the date hereof.” Ethel and her husband, William M. Williams (1882-1928), made good on the promise in their own way. In April, Ethel filed for a permit “to build brick veneer and add one story to residence [in] Forest Hills, to cost $5,000.” These improvements, which transformed Abney’s former home into a stately, two-story residence, ensured that 1400 Westminster matched the aesthetic and size of the new residences quickly lining Westminster, Stratford, and Devonshire—several of which are seen today on the tour. Ethel, whose father, James Van Metre (1860-1932), was one of Columbia’s premiere cabinetmakers, ensured the carpentry and finishings were of extraordinary quality.
When Ethel, whose husband died at the home in 1928, first placed this residence for sale in 1930, advertisements noted that “the Williams Home” was “comparatively new and up to date,” another indication that the residence listed was not simply the 25-year-old “Abney bungalow.” When it failed to sell during the Great Depression, Williams rented out rooms to boarders, several of whom were associated with Van Metre Furniture, of which Ethel had since assumed the presidency.
In 1937, Joseph E. and Lela Cagle purchased 1400 Westminster from Ethel, pledging to occupy it “after making extensive improvements.” Joseph Cagle died in 1948, and the property subsequently sold to Townsend Mikell Belser (1910-1964). He received a scare the following year, when he surprised a thief in his home who stole “a Civil War sword and some cash.” The Belser family sold the property to Nancy Moorer (1917-2013) and J. Willis Cantey (1917-1986) in 1955, and it has remained in the family ever since.
Homeowner Insights
On display in the home is a Victorian-era wedding gown belonging to Allie Grey Buchanon Moorer (1888-1961), Nancy Cantey’s mother. Allie married Col. Joseph McQuillan Moorer in 1913.
