1716 Wayne Street
Francis Butler, a postal clerk for the Atlantic Coastline Railway and a skilled carpenter, completed this residence in 1914. It was a replacement for his family's original home, which was destroyed by fire earlier that year. Erected for $5,000 with plans purchased from the Sears Roebuck Company, this property is representative of houses owned by many financially successful, middle-class African Americans that moved into parts of Arsenal Hill during the first few decades of the 20th century. Butler and his family lived in the home until the mid-1940s.
During the 1910s, the Seaboard Airline Railroad established what many Arsenal Hill residents referred to as "the Cut." A large trench that allowed trains to access Seaboard Park, this right-of-way became one of the neighborhood's most visible features that endure today.
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1716 Wayne Street, 2018. Historic Columbia collection
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"The Cut" seen crossing southeast to northwest across Arsenal Hill. Sanborn FIre Insurance Company Map. Image courtesy Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company Collection, South Caroliniana LIbrary, University of South Carolina, Columbia
