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Please note The Museum of the Reconstruction Era will be closed for house tours Wednesday, Feb. 1 - Friday, Feb. 3 due to garden renovations, and the Robert Mills House will be closed for tours on Thursday, Feb. 2 due to a private event on site.

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Northeast Corner of Barhamville Road and Matthews Street

Known as George Street until 1944, Matthews Street possesses several intact examples of the “shotgun” house, a domestic vernacular style historically common throughout the South.  The shotgun house, popular from 1880 to 1930, was distinct for its narrow, rectangular form, usually one room wide and two rooms deep. This domestic style often populated modest or low income urban Southern neighborhoods and was once a more prominent presence on the streetscape of Columbia. Some historians trace the origin of the shotgun house to African and Haitian influences in New Orleans, where they subsequently were adopted by black freedmen who migrated to cities across the South.  Unfortunately, modern development in Columbia has replaced many of these distinct historic houses across the city.

  • Northeast Corner of Barhamville Road and Matthews Street

    Northeast Corner of Barhamville Road and Matthews Street, 2018. Historic Columbia collection

  • 2400 block of Matthews Street, 1956

    View looking east down the 2400 block of Matthews Street, 1956. Image courtesy Joseph Winter Collection, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia

  • 2400 block of Matthews Street, 1966

    View looking east down the 2400 block of Matthews Street, 1966. Image courtesy Joseph Winter Collection, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia

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Historic Columbia

© 2023 Historic Columbia

Administrative Offices
1601 Richland Street
Columbia, SC 29201

Tours
All historic house and garden tours start at the Gift Shop at Robert Mills.
1616 Blanding Street
Columbia, SC 29201

Questions? Call (803) 252-7742.

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