Former education professor opens Columbia Cottage for living history tour

In celebration of the working-class history of Columbia, Wanda Gale Breedlove, a retired USC education professor, is opening her home, an original Columbia Cottage (circa 1895), for a special tour.

During the living history presentation, visitors will meet the former owners and residents of the cottage, including white and African-American families who represent a microcosm of Columbia in the last 110 years.

They can sample 1890's refreshments and dance to The S.C. State Waltz, also known as The Richardson Waltz, which honors Gen. Richard Richardson, a surveyor and patriot in the Revolutionary War, and three S.C. governors: Gov. James Burchill Richardson (1802-04), Gov. John Peter Richardson (1840-42), and Gov. John Peter Richardson Jr. (1886-90). The Daughters of the American Revolution introduced the Richardson Waltz to the S.C. legislature, and in 2000, it was designated as the official State Waltz.

"I came to appreciate my Columbia Cottage in the last few years after touring historic Charleston homes that have been irreparably compromised by interior renovation and remodeling," Breedlove said. "Initially due to lack of funds and later from personal preference during this three-decade process, I have personally worked on every square inch of the property from roofing to refinishing floors, locating 100-year-old lumber, studying 19th-century building practices, and researching deeds and documents."

Located at 1414 Gregg St., the cottage will be open for living tours from 3 to 5 p.m. May 14. Admission is $6 per person. Vintage waltz lessons (no experience necessary) will be offered from 5 to 6:30 p.m. The cost is $6 per person. The cost of the tour and a lesson is $10 per person. For reservations, e-mail celestia@sc.rr.com. For more information, call 581-6147.

Historically Speaking: A Quarterly Newsletter of Historic Columbia (Winter 2006) described the cottage as follows: "Its clean lines, pleasant proportions, and original features are a fine example of late 19th-century Columbia Cottage architecture. Each room has heart pine floors, mortis and tenon doors, and windows and cove molding under chair rails."

Besides its present owner, the cottage has other connections to USC. John P. Thomas, Jr., a USC law professor, held a mortgage on the property in 1911. Thomas helped make public schools in Columbia possible through personal loans. Also, the cottage was a rooming house for many USC students from the 1980s to about 2000.

The Columbia Cottage, also known as the Scott-Shell-Breedlove House, originated in 1892 when Samuel M. Scott bought the lot on Winn Street. Scott was a railroad engineer at the time, and an extensive railroad hub and park were located nearby. Many of the subsequent inhabitants and owners of the house worked for the railroads as engineers, firemen, and machinists.

Scott built the house with three large rooms and a front porch running the length of two of the large rooms flanking a central foyer between 1892 and 1895. A fourth large room and rear porch added soon after original construction reflects the same dimension, style, and construction materials as the original.

After the Scott family, a series of middle-class tenants and owners inhabited the house. Residents included S. Belton Atkinson (1911), who worked for the Antiseptic Barber Shop on Lady Street, and George D. Hayden (1930), who co-owned Hayden and Sauls Battery and Electric Company at 1510 Sumter St. with Benjamin F. Sauls. The architect Jessie Wessinger also was one of the property owners.

In 1933, an African-American helper named James Shell and his wife, Sara, purchased the property. The Shell family and their descendants occupied the house continuously for 47 years. One of the Shell's three daughters, Wilba Shell Lyles, lived longest in the house, selling the property to Breedlove, who began renovations--one room at a time--to save the structure, in 1980.

5/06