Being Amber Rhea

In my wrap-up post about our road trip, I mentioned doing research on family history. So here’s what that’s about.

I’ve heard references over the years to “the house in Columbia” - most often from my grandmother, and sometimes from my mom. And while reminiscing and/or telling a story for the umpteenth time, sometimes Gran would exclaim, “I know I have a picture of that house! I wish I could find it!” (So far, she hasn’t.)

I don’t remember when exactly I became more than passively interested in this house. I’ve always enjoyed the feel of old buildings; and as long as I’ve known that the field existed, I’ve been interested in historic preservation. So, years and years ago I asked what happened to the house, and when Gran and/or Mom said it had been torn down, I accepted it with a sigh and chalked it up to another casualty of so-called “urban renewal.”

There was never anything more than that to the story, and I never thought much about it. But recently I’ve become determined to piece together the missing years between 1969 and today. It was during those years, of course, that the house met its sad fate.

Here’s what I do know:

The address of the house was 1429 Laurel St. It was on the corner of Laurel St. and Bull St. in downtown Columbia. It was built before the Civil War.

The house was owned by the McMaster family. At the time of Sherman’s March to the Sea, the family was vacationing in Mars Hill, NC (that’s another story in and of itself!) and a friend was house-sitting. Conveniently enough, the friend happened to be acquainted with Sherman himself, and when his troops came through Columbia, she begged him not to burn down the house, and he complied. (Aside: Is it just me, or does it seem like a lot of Southern families have stories about buildings that Sherman spared after a mournful young lady’s plea? What a softie that guy must’ve been.)

Gran said there was a cannon ball embedded in the ground in the front yard of the house, just to the left of the gate, from the Civil War. She also said there was a magnolia tree in the yard that was on record as the largest magnolia tree in the country.

Now, let’s see if I can get all this family tree stuff right! Gran’s paternal grandmother, Katherine McMaster, was widowed when her husband, James Woodrow, Jr., died in his early 30’s. At that time she moved back into the house. A bunch of her siblings, cousins, and other relations were living there, too. It was “the family house.” It’s pretty neat… you don’t really see that kind of thing anymore: a place that anyone in the family knows they can go back to if they need to. Anyway, moving on…

Gran says she remembers visiting the house as a child and all the cousins would be sitting on the front porch, rocking. She says she thought, “Is that what happens when you get old? You just sit around and rock?”

The last time Gran and Mom visited the house was in 1969 1967, when Virginia McMaster (affectionately known as Gin-Gin) had her 100th birthday. I’ve seen a photo of them standing inside the house, but exterior photos remain elusive.

Gin-Gin died in 1971 1969, and that’s when the details become hazy. All I’ve heard from Gran is that “no one in the family could afford to keep it” and “they couldn’t afford to put in air conditioning.” And so, even though apparently the family (and I don’t know who “the family” consisted of at that point) didn’t want to let go of it, they had to sell the house, and it was razed and made into a parking lot for the church next door.

What I’m trying to find out is when, exactly, it was demolished; who in the McMaster family was the actual owner; whom they sold the house to; how many times it changed hands before demolition; and so on.

This post is long enough already, so I’ll do a follow-up post with scans (or photos, if I can’t find the cable for my scanner) of a few documents I tracked down at the courthouse in Columbia, and a GIS satellite image from 1959.

Nerd note: Yes, I know that when you click the “more” link, the permalink page is screwed up with parts of the sidebars missing and such. That’s an unfortunate side effect of using the One True Layout - it doesn’t like anchor links. But I don’t feel like re-engineering my template at the moment. Anyway, sorry about that.