This old building has a magnificent presence, but where in South Carolina is it? Send your best guess – plus your name and hometown – to feedback@statehousereport.com. In the subject line, write: “Mystery Photo guess.” (If you don’t include your contact information, we can’t give you credit!)
Our previous Mystery Photo
Our June 22 mystery showcased the Afro-American Insurance Company building in Rock Hill.
Interestingly, no South Carolinians identified the photo, which was snapped by Bill Segars of Hartsville. Congratulations to two Virginia sleuths: George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; and Dale Rhodes of Richmond, Va.
Graf provided some context: “According to nationalregister.sc.gov/York, the Afro-American Insurance Company Building was constructed about 1909 to house the local office of the Afro-American Insurance Company. This company, with offices in several southeastern states, was one of several insurance companies owned and operated by African Americans marketing to African American communities. The company’s building in Rock Hill became an impressive symbol of the aspirations for commercial success among many African American leaders. It also was evidence of the growing market for business and financial services within the emerging African American middle class.
“The building is the design of William W. Smith of Charlotte, an important African American designer and builder in the region. Because most buildings that historically housed African American businesses in Rock Hill have been destroyed through urban renewal programs, the Afro-American Insurance Company Building has added significance as perhaps the most important surviving example of a commercial building related to the African American community of the early twentieth century. It is a two-story commercial building of brick laid in common bond. The façade has a tan brick veneer, while the sides and rear are in red brick. The façade has brick quoining at the corners and a corbelled brick cornice and center parapet with recessed panel. Listed in the National Register June 10, 1992.”
Send us a mystery: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
Is that one of the old VA hospital buildings that currently house the USC School of Medicine in Columbia?