TBT: 1600 block of Main St.

This is part of our #TBT Series in collaboration with Historic Columbia.

This week, we’re taking a look back at Main Street’s most versatile stretch: the 1600 block – home to art galleries, theaters, a wine bar + some of the best vegan food this side of the Congaree.

Here’s what’s on Main today 📍, what was there yesterday and what’ll be there tomorrow.

BTW, why are none of these buildings built before 1865? Because – don’t know if you’ve heard this – Columbia was very much on fire. 🔥 Main St.’s been lit for a long time. During the Burning of Columbia in Feb. 1865, Main St. (back then it was named Richardson St.) was completely razed, so what you see now, north of the State House, are Reconstruction Era + later buildings.

📍 1601 Main Street | Built: 1869-1872

What’s #OnThisSpot today: Mast General Store downstairs, private living space upstairs

What was #OnThisSpot in history: Until 1915, the space hosted a stream of merchants: green grocers, cobblers, undertakers, tailors + restauranteurs. (One-stop shopping at its finest.) But in 1915, the Efird brothers opened a department store. ⬇️

Image courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library

Image by Walter Blanchard, courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library

The Efirds were the first to undertake a historic renovation of the building, adding a rear addition in 1919. Belk bought the store in 1958, and Lourie’s took over in 1960.

Wait – where’s 1603 Main Street? Mast General Store ate it up like a lost hiker eats freeze-dried beef stew with a titanium camping spork. Mast used to be two separate buildings (1601 + 1603 Main) but they were combined in 1915.

Across the street: Masala on Main (1604 Main, opened 2015).

📍 1607 Main Street | Built: 1886

Today: The Nickelodeon Theatre, of course ⬇️

Yesterday: Like several other buildings on Main Street, 1607 used to be a cinema called The Fox Theater. ⬇️

Image courtesy of the Russell Maxey Photograph Collection, Richland Library

At the time of its opening, the Fox was one of five movie theatres on Main St. From the late 1980s ‘til 2009 (when the Nick purchased the property), a beauty supply store occupied the site. Many of the original art deco details had been preserved. Look out for them the next time you’re in the upper theater.

Image courtesy of the Nickelodeon Theatre

Fun fact: In 2015, The Nick won a Preservation Award from Historic Columbia for work done to its exterior, as well as the rehabilitation of the original theater seating downstairs.

📍 1611 Main Street | Built: Circa 1872; modified early-20th century + 1970s

Today: King’s Jewelers ⬇️

Yesterday: Hang on to your Mad-Men-esque fedoras, friends – King’s boasts one of the best examples of extant mid-century modern façade work on Main Street. Beneath this golden addition (ca. 1969) lies a Reconstruction Era building that once housed a bakery + jewelry shop.

📍 1613 Main Street | Built: 1903

Today: Law offices of Barnes, Alford, Stork & Johnson ⬇️

Yesterday: Walter D. Lever, the building’s original owner, was a successful merchant known around Columbia as “Lever-the-Shoe-Man.” Not the catchiest nickname we’ve ever heard. In the 1920s, Draughon’s Practical Business College took over the space. ⬇️ The Lever Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Image courtesy of Historic Columbia, reprinted from Illustrated Columbia, South Carolina

Across the street: Good Life Cafe (1614 Main, opened 2014).

📍 1619-1621 Main Street | Built: 1866-1876

Tomorrow: Soon (hopefully October), the Robinson Building will be home to The Grand boutique bowling alley on the ground floor and a private apartment upstairs. ⬇️

Yesterday: From 1909-1914, the Robinson Building operated as the Grand Theatre, which held live performances like comedy, singing, dancing + more. The State described acts such as the “celebrated Zam-Zaks, who [did] a sensational knife-throwing act in which [a] lady [was] surrounded with knives, any one of which, if there happened a misthrow, [would have] imperiled her life.”

Image from the Hensel Collection, courtesy of South Caroliniana Library

Across the street: Michael’s Cafe (1620 Main, opened in 2014).

📍 1625 Main Street | Built: ca. 1866

Today: Mark’s Mens Wear ⬇️

Yesterday: This is quite possibly the oldest building on Main Street. Rising from the ashes of Sherman’s march, this building was built to house the Daily Phoenix newspaper. ⬇️ During construction, one foreman suffered a heat stroke while working on the roof, and a second was bloodied when a pile of flooring fell on him. The struggle is real, y’all.

Image courtesy of the South Carolina State Museum

Between 1625 and 1633: Sweet Cream Company (1627 Main, opened in 2012), and coming soon across the street: Shoppes on Main (1626 Main, multi-vendor retail space ft. Ally & Eloise Bakeshop, Fripp & Folly + more, opening late October).

📍 1633 Main Street | Built: 1870s

Today: Lula Drake Wine Parlour ⬇️ (opened Nov. 2016; new upstairs event space to open in October)

Enjoy wines from a James Beard Award Nominee restaurant. | Photo by @patmikekelly

Yesterday: Main Street’s wine bar was originally a saloon and bottling company. ⬇️ (History rhymes, y’all.) Built by John C. Seegers, a German immigrant, the façade originally featured an ornamental cornice (like a hat for a building) + large cast iron columns out front.

In the 1940s, the building became a sporting goods store. Recently, the original façade has been restored to better reflect its 1870s appearance.

Image courtesy City of Columbia Planning Department

A few steps away: The Cigar Box (1639 Main, opened 2012); coming soon across the street: Cyberwoven (1634 Main St., web strategy + design firm, opening 2018) + coming soon at the end of the block: Subterranean courtyard restaurant in the former Hennessy’s building (1649 Main St.).

Coolest part about the 1600 block of Main? You can spend an entire day there – and never run out of places to go, people to see and food to eat.

My ideal day would start by getting my namaste on at Masala on Main, followed by a plate of the cashew nacho cheese tacos + strawberry shortcake smoothie at Good Life Cafe. Afterwards, I would peruse Mast General Store for a head start on Christmas shopping – then rest my legs with a matinee at the Nick (with a scoop of Sweet Cream Co. on top). Happy hour calls for a wine flight (or two) at Lula Drake, and in a few months, I can cap the day off with dinner + bowling at The Grand.

...and some people still say there’s nothing to do in Cola. That’s just one block.
-Beth