What Will Happen to S.C.'s Babcock Building?
By Elizabeth McNamara | Online Only | July 24, 2009
The Babcock Building?s iconic red cupola and center section are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Credit: Courtesy of the Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation
The South Carolina State Hospital and its surrounding 181-acre campus in Columbia are for sale, and preservationists are concerned about its fate. The site operated as a city within a city for nearly 200 years and, because South Carolina became the second state to provide funds for the mentally ill in the 1820s, the site includes some of the state capital's most significant historic landmarks.
"Embedded within the state hospital buildings lies the history of mental health," says Michael Bedenbaugh, executive director of the Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation, one of the groups heading the effort to save the older buildings. He hopes a 45-acre section of the campus can be portioned-off and developed in a way that would retain the structures.
The Babcock Building, which was completed in four stages between 1857 and 1885, is one of the most significant buildings on the campus. Historians consider it an exceptional example of Italian Renaissance Revival design; but, while the cupola and center portion of the structure have been added to the National Register of Historic Places, the labyrinth of wings and additions are not registered.
"We got the word out on Web sites, I went on talks around the state. We wrote [newspaper] articles, letters to the editor, and the response was great," Bedenbaugh says. "But the mental health commission will sell to whoever is willing to buy."
Mark Binkley, general council for the Mental Health Commission, says that as fiduciaries the South Carolina Department of Mental Health "must devote the proceeds towards the care of the mentally ill, and we have to maximize the amount of money we could get. ... Though we, personally, might rather have something historical or aesthetically pleasing come from this, we have to act as trustees in the best interest of the charitable trust."
Aside from the Babcock Building, Bedenbaugh says there are at least 14 additional structures on the site eligible for local and national designation.
"It is absolutely essential for the long-term sense of 'community' to maintain a sense of place," Bedenbaugh says. "The belief that places can be torn down and replaced creates a very transient existence."
Next month, under the leadership of Councilwoman Belinda Gergel and Councilman E.W. Cromartie II, the City of Columbia will host a two-day hearing with the planning commission to explore the idea of turning the Bull Street site into an architectural conservation district, which would help protect it from demolition and encourage the reuse of its historic structures.
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