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"H" is for Horseshoe (Columbia)

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"H" is for Horseshoe (Columbia). Deriving its name from the U-shaped orientation of its nineteenth and early twentieth-century buildings massed around a central green space, the Horseshoe constitutes the historic heart of the University of South Carolina’s Columbia campus. It features the capital city’s greatest concentration of historic buildings. The plan for the “college grounds”—as it was then known—came from a competition in which Robert Mills submitted a design inspired by styles associated with colleges in the Northeast.  Construction began in 1803. No longer home to university professors, the Horseshoe’s buildings continue to serve as dormitories, classrooms, and administrative offices. With its masonry and stucco three and four-story buildings, the area’s architectural feel is that of a neoclassical historic district. The Horseshoe was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.