1542 Main Street
2026 Palladium Tour | Life on Main Street
1542 Main Street
William J. Duffie and John A. Chapman erected this two-story building at the beginning of 1871. “Standing now upon their own ground,” the booksellers announced they were ready “to carry on their business, which is to publish and sell books.” They also rented out the second story, which was reached via an external staircase on the right side of the main storefront. Although the partnership dissolved just a year later, Duffie and later his son remained in business here until 1912. That year, Duffie’s liquidated the store’s stock of more than 10,000 books.
The Daily Phoenix announced the relocation of Duffie & Chapman, which had already made a name for themselves as a leading publisher of school primers and religious history books. Duffie later published the 1894 textbook School History of South Carolina. Its misleading and pejorative descriptions of underrepresented groups including Black people and Native Americans followed the academic standards held by schools at that time.
From 1912 until 1938, the building’s first floor house various food businesses, including Condos Confectionary, owned by three Greek immigrant brothers from Texas, and then from 1920 until 1932 as the Metropolitan Café, a storied institution in Columbia. Today, Drake’s Duck-in restaurant carries on this tradition. The building’s second story operated as many different types of businesses, including a pressing (ironing) club, a dentist office, a dressmaker, and briefly as the home of sign maker Bronson & Miller (as seen in one of the surviving glass doors). The other surviving glass door, installed for the Darling Beauty Salon in 1938, lends its name to The Darling Suite that overlooks Main Street. The shutters that line the second story hall are likely original to the structure and were a functional way for these businesses to receive natural light that was blocked by buildings to either side.
In 1933, Cannon Shoe Store remodeled the building based on plans by architect and engineer James B. Urquhart. Thereafter, further renovation in August 1938 added a one-story addition to the rear and four feet to the front facade. It was likely this renovation that removed the door and staircase to the second floor, as from that point forward the second floor operated as storage for Cannon and its successor, Marilyn’s Slipper Shop (later Marilyn Shoes). Marilyn’s added the slipcover facade sometime prior to 1959, with other nearby businesses following suit.
In 2017, the owner of Drake’s Duck-in began rehabilitating the building using financial incentives including historic tax credits and the Bailey Bill tax abatement. Major changes included reincorporating a door to the main elevation with access to the second story and removing the slipcover facade. Additional work undertaken by the owners of Hotel Trundle turned the second story, then a time capsule of the 1930s, into four short-term rental apartments. A rooftop patio was also installed above the one-story addition to the rear of the building, providing a place for respite and second point of egress for those staying at The Flutter Wing, which opened in 2023 and won a Historic Columbia Preservation Award in 2024.
