Hampton-Preston Mansion, then and now.
This is part of our #TBT collaboration with Historic Columbia.
We’re back with another TBT, and this week, we’re peeking into other people’s hotel rooms.
If you’ve been around the last few months, you may have heard that the Hampton-Preston Mansion turns 200 this year. Some other stuff that made its debut in 1818? Hydrogen peroxide, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the White House, and Mary Todd Lincoln. It was an eclectic year.
What happened to these mansions after their owners died and the deeds were lost to history? What happened to these sites, once maintained by large workforces of enslaved people, after the Civil War? What became of the portraits and the porcelain?
Many of the South’s formerly grand, rolling estates found outside city limits were portioned off and distributed to family members or tenant farmers. In the city, however, these homes—whose footprints were marginally smaller than that of their country cousins—met a different fate.
Image courtesy Historic Columbia
The Hampton-Preston Mansion is no different. In the aftermath of the Civil War, 1615 Blanding Street became many things—a military headquarters, a convent, two women’s colleges, and part of an automobile dealership.
Its furnishings changed again and again. Paint colors were stripped and reapplied. Electricity was introduced. The gardens were leveled, and more than half the lot was sold. By 1942, Hampton-Preston would have been unrecognizable to its original owners.
Then, in 1943—nearly 15 years after the site’s last long-term tenant (Chicora College) moved out—Hampton-Preston was purchased by Columbia developer and lawyer Thomas Hair. His plan? To reinvent the site as a tourist home.
Image courtesy Historic Columbia
What’s a tourist home? It’s a former single-family residence that’s been split into short-term apartments. In other words, it wasn’t purpose-built as a hotel. Hair’s plan was to repurpose the former antebellum destination with the goal of bringing back “the hospitality of the Old South,” as reported by The State newspaper. Hair’s audience was white, middle-class travelers who opted not to stay in more expensive hotels downtown.
Image courtesy Historic Columbia
But, in 1943, Hampton-Preston wasn’t ready to receive guests yet. It had been years since proper maintenance had been performed at the site. Y’all know when Chip and Joanna Gaines convince people to buy haunted-looking houses with a few, ok more than a few, challenges (or opportunities in a different light)? Well, that was Hampton-Preston.
Hair and his friend, Maggie P. Campbell, rehabilitated the site, which opened to the public on March 11, 1944. According to The State, the mansion’s 25 rooms were restored to “excellent condition” and exuded “old South charm” through their homey furnishings, which included an array of “antique” pieces.
In all actuality, the tourist home’s furnishings were mostly second-hand purchases that had a “lived in” look. Rooms were an amalgamation of antebellum furnishings, 19th-century memorabilia, Bakelite ashtrays, and modern technology. (We’re pretty sure the original owners didn’t have a cable TV hookup in their bedroom.)
During its 20-year run, the Hampton-Preston Tourist Home was one of a handful of similar establishments in Cola—Blanding Tourist Home one block down at 1528 Blanding; the Martha Washington Tourist Home at 1615 Gervais Street; and Gilliam’s Tourist Home.
These homes, like other white-owned hotels and motels in Columbia, were racially segregated. African American travelers had to seek similar accommodations in other neighborhoods. (Think back to the tourist homes in Waverly and Arsenal Hill.)
African American travelers could find shelter and meals in places highlighted in The Negro Travelers Green Book, which provided helpful tips for safe journeys during segregation. Among the Columbia venues for black travelers were the Cornwall and Smith Tourist Homes.
By 1966, the Hampton-Preston Tourist Home, bearing signs of heavy use and deferred maintenance, closed to visitors. In actuality, the property had served as more of a boarding house for many years, as guests stayed far longer than your typical tourist.
But things didn’t end there. To find out what fate awaited the mansion in the 1970s, you’ll have to stop by for a visit. We promise it’s as weird as might expect.
Image courtesy Historic Columbia
This Saturday, May 12, Hampton-Preston will open its doors once again to tourists as a historic house museum. The site has once again been reinterpreted to reflect the stories of those who lived, worked, and died on the property over the course of its 200 years. And that includes the eclectic décor of the Hampton-Preston Tourist Home.
That’s it for us this week. #TBT with Historic Columbia will be taking a little break over the summer. Let us know what you’d like us to throwback to in the fall by replying to this email.
P.S. – It’s National Travel and Tourism Week and the theme is “Then and Now.” Head over to Experience Columbia’s website to see how some of Columbia’s historic sites have evolved to be pretty cool tourist spots.
– Lois from Historic Columbia
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