23 Heathwood Circle
Joseph Walker House
In 1920, Joseph Walker, a business associate of M.C. Heath, and his wife, Claudia, purchased the first lot sold within the neighborhood at 23 Heathwood Circle. The Walker family moved from its Wales Garden residence at 505 Saluda Avenue and lived for a short time downtown at the Kirkland Apartments on Pendleton Street until their house in Heathwood was completed in 1923. Due to demolition of earlier properties, this Colonial Revival style structure is considered the oldest residence in the neighborhood.
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Joseph Walker House, 2018. Historic Columbia collection
In collaboration with Massachusetts landscape architect Harlan P. Kelsey, Joseph Walker was primarily responsible for the development of another Columbia suburb, that of Forest Hills, established immediately east of the city’s Waverly neighborhood, between Forest Drive and Gervais Street. Perhaps a result of his business affiliation with M.C. Heath or possibly because of its distance from town, Walker chose to build his home near the Heath mansion. In its early years, the Walker family kept two horses on its property.
Though Walker initially worked with M.C. Heath and Company cotton brokers, by 1918 he was with Hollowell and Walker. Three years later, he became vice president and general manager of the AMPE & I Corporation, and president of the Southern Factorage and Storage Company. By 1925, he was again working in the cotton industry with his own company, the Joseph Walker Company, with C.L. Walker, Robert B. Walker, and J.E. Davis.