Here’s another building with a rounded shape. But is it a castle in South Carolina? What is it? Send your guess to feedback@statehousereport.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.
Our previous Mystery Photo
Our Dec. 28 mystery, “Building with interesting shape,” shows the rear of Davidson Hall at Coker College in Hartsville.
Congratulations to these photo detectives: Lexie Chatham of West Columbia; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Frank Bouknight of Summerville; David Taylor of Darlington (who had help from his wife!); and Jay Altman of Columbia.
Graf sent this context: “According to nationalregister.sc.gov, Davidson Hall, located on the campus of Coker College, was constructed about 1909-1910, with funds donated by the college’s founder, (Confederate) Major James Lide Coker. Major Coker, noted Hartsville industrialist, merchant, banker and agriculturalist, founded Coker College to provide quality education for women and to extend cultural opportunities to the Pee Dee region.
“Davidson Hall is significant for its association with Major Coker’s philanthropy and it is important in the history of education in the Pee Dee. It was the first building constructed for Coker College and it became the symbol of the school; its façade is incorporated into the college seal.
“Designed by the prominent South Carolina firm of Wilson, Sompayrac, and Urquhart, the two-story, brick educational building is enhanced by Neo-Classical details and stands out as one of Hartsville’s finest buildings. The hall is a rectangular plan brick building laid in common bond. It has a hip roof and a projecting semicircular auditorium on the rear elevation. The central portion of the fifteen bay façade features a projecting, two-story, pedimented portico, which is supported by six stuccoed Ionic columns with scamozzi capitals. A cornice embellished with dentil molding encircles the entire building. Listed in the National Register Nov.10, 1983.”
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.
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