With over 7,000 images in the Local History Digital Collections it can be hard to find those hidden gems. Take a look at what your neighbors found interesting in August, 2020.
The Walker Local and Family History Center maintains a healthy collection of historic photographs, postcards and other local memorabilia. A selection of these are online in the Local History Digital Collections, with new additions each week. Each month I’ll share the most popular images from the previous month. Below are the top 5 images from August, 2020.
On August 19, 1912 photographer Walter Blanchard captured these lightning strikes near Main Street. The east side of the 1400 block is visible, along with the new arch lighting hanging across the street and powered by the electric streetcar lines. The tall building on the right is the National Loan and Exchange Building, now known as the Barringer Building. Constructed in 1903, it was the city’s first sky-scraper.
In August, 1964 a long line formed in the Richland County Court House while citizens waited to register to vote. The 1964 election was to be held in November, with Lyndon B. Johnson (D) running against Barry Goldwater (R) for President of the United States. African-American voters, who largely supported Johnson, were urged to register by the efforts of the new South Carolina Voter Education Project office and the NAACP. Goldwater won the state, but Johnson won the national election.
This postcard features Bell’s Hamburgers and Crispy Chick, a regional fast food drive in restaurant chain with this location near the corner of Forest Drive and Trenholm Road in Forest Acres. This postcard is not dated, but the restaurant existed from 1962 until 1972.
2) The Ghetto Club, 1975. From The State Newspaper Photograph Archive.
Door to the Ghetto Club, a nightclub on the corner of Hampton Street and Gadsden Street in downtown Columbia. The area was a working class African-American neighborhood of homes and black-owned shops. But at the time of this photograph the buildings on this block were slated for demolition through the city’s urban renewal program. This entire neighborhood, and many others like it west of Assembly Street, is now a faint memory.
The first enclosed shopping mall to open in the Columbia area was Dutch Square Mall. Opening in 1970, it featured anchor tenants White’s, Woolco and Tapp’s department stores, and smaller shops like Freidman’s Jewelers, Cromer’s P-Nut Shop (with live monkeys), and this Chick-fil-A, where a chicken sandwich cost 69 cents.