2214 Hampton Street
Visanska-Starks House
Polish immigrant jeweler Barrett Visanska bought this property in 1913. A leader in Columbia’s Jewish community, Visanska was a founder of the Tree of Life Congregation. Benedict College’s first black president, Dr. John Jacob Starks, lived here from 1938 until his death in 1944. Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital used the former residence as its nurses’ home following World War II. Heavily damaged by fire in 1989, the property, reduced by one story, has been rehabilitated and is privately owned again.
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Visanska-Starks House, 2018. Historic Columbia collection
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Dr. John J. Starks, circa 1930. Image courtesy Catherine Fleming Bruce
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Barrett Visanska, undated. The Tree of Life: Fifty Years of Congregational Life at the Tree of Life Synagogue, Columbia, S.C by Helen Kohn Hennig
