Blog
Reconstruction's Legacy
The Palmetto State’s historical connections to the 14th Amendment don’t often garner lots of attention. Harvard Law professor Randall Kennedy , a Columbia native who is one of the nation’s top experts on civil rights and civil liberties, plans to change that in his keynote address at the upcoming symposium...
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The Slave Dwelling Project Visits Historic Columbia Site
On Thursday, April 5, 2012, Joseph McGill, a field officer with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and a Civil War 54th Regiment re-enactor, offered an unprecedented program for Historic Columbia Foundation. In an effort to heighten awareness in and support of preserving sites associated with slavery McGill spent the...
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The Congaree Vista: Then, Now and Tomorrow
The words view, landscape and outlook are among the many meanings of the word Vista. Throughout its diverse history Columbia’s Congaree Vista has embodied all of these definitions. The district continues to do so today, though the interpretations of those meanings have changed over time to reflect the transformation that...
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Another Perspective in Matriarch Mary Cantey Hampton
For the past eighteen years, this ca.-1836 portrait of Mary Cantey Hampton has provided visitors to the Hampton-Preston Mansion with an impression of what the family matron looked like shortly after her husband died. Historic Columbia collection, HCF 1999.1.1 In 1970, following months of rehabilitation and restoration work, the circa-1818...
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Evolution of Landmark Property
Like most older buildings, the Hampton-Preston Mansion has evolved over time. Today, it stands as an amalgamation of changes, some large, some small, all interesting in their own right. Each change offers clues about the people who designed, built and subsequently modified the former residence so that it could perform...
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Welcome to Columbia: Wish You Were Here?
In November 1943, local real estate developer and lawyer Thomas Hair bought the former Hampton-Preston estate, which had been placed to many uses since Chicora College left Columbia nearly 15 years earlier. Banking on the property’s widely known association with members of Columbia’s and South Carolina’s most elite families, Hair...
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Preservation Matters
Much-anticipated capital improvements to the Hampton-Preston site during work this winter and spring have yielded exciting finds—both inside and outside the building. In December, paint analyst Betty Prime with Meadors Construction of Charleston, spent two days pulling samples to determine how occupants changed the house over time to better suit...
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Including Voices Long-Unheard
Imagine having a story to share with others but being unable to do so. Perhaps, no one wanted to hear what you had to say—even if your contribution would make everyone’s experience more meaningful. Maybe your voice was muted intentionally; maybe it was quieted, or silenced altogether, through circumstances, including...
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Monkey Puzzle: The "Living Fossil" of Hampton-Preston
The gardens of the Hampton-Preston Mansion were one of the most celebrated in the antebellum south. With so much space to fill, we have relied on several sources to narrow our focus for plant material. While no explicit records of the content of the gardens exists from the Hamptons or...
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HP's Newest Installation
Good things come to those who wait. That’s a great saying, if in the end you do indeed get what you waited for. The forthcoming installation of an historically correct floor covering in the entry hall of the Hampton-Preston Mansion is eighteen years in the making for HC’s Director of...
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