Historic Designation
If you live or work in a historically designated building or are just curious to learn more about local preservation, the resources below provide general information about historic designation in the City of Columbia.
- Benefits of Historic Districts (PDF)
- Design Preservation Classifications (PDF)
- Design Preservation FAQs (PDF)
- Bailey Bill Newsletter (PDF)
Historic Windows
Historic windows are an incredibly important and constantly undervalued feature of any historic building. Before shopping for often costly and incompatible replacements, take a look at the resources provided below.
- Window Review Cheat Sheet (PDF)
- Preservation Brief 9: The Repair of Historic Wooden Windows
- 13 Things You Should Know About Retrofitting Historic Windows
- Saving Windows, Saving Money: Evaluating the Energy Performance of Window Retrofit and Replacement by the Preservation Green Lab
- Window Preservation Alliance Resources
- Double Hung Historic Window Restoration Resources
Maintenance Plans
Creating a maintenance plan for your home can help you catch issues early and prevent costlier repairs down the road. Below are some tools and tips to help you develop a maintenance plan for the long-term care of your property.
- May 2020 Preservation Newsletter - Creating a Home Maintenance Plan (PDF)
- Home Inspection Checklist (PDF)
- Seasonal Maintenance Checklist Worksheet (PDF)
Energy Efficiency
There are a number of ways to improve the energy efficiency of your historic building - in cost effective ways! Before you spend your hard earned money on expensive and sometimes ineffectual changes, take a look at the resources provided below.
- Tips for Energy Efficiency (PDF)
- Preservation Newsletter: Energy Efficiency in Historic Buildings (PDF)
- Reducing Air Leaks (PDF)
- Solar Panels & Historic Buildings (PDF)
- Storm Window Savings Project (PDF)
Videos
Preservation staff has compiled a number of videos regarding historic preservation efforts and incentives and local historic districts. Access the playlist on the City's YouTube channel here.
Partners in Preservation
Located in Columbia, the SHPO has a number of free educational resources available to historic property owners, and they also have certain tax credit programs available for qualifying renovations. They have all of the state's listings in the National Register of Historic Places, many of them with full-length nomination forms and photographs, which can be valuable tools for researching your community. The SHPO is housed in the same building as the S.C. Department of Archives and History, which maintains thousands of our state's historic documents.
Did you know that the NPS maintains the National Register of Historic Places? The National Register is an honorary listing that may qualify your property for certain tax programs for qualifying renovations. The NPS website is also full of free technical advice for everything from cleaning masonry to restoring historic windows.
The National Parks Services has many preservation briefs that can help property owners when maintain, preserving, rehabilitating and restoring historic buildings. Topics include, but are not limited to, cleaning and water-repellent treatments for masonry, structural glass, repair and thermal upgrading of historic steel windows, and many other topics.
A private, non-profit organization, the Historic Columbia Foundation maintains several historic house museums and hosts a number of educational and social programs throughout the year. They are advocates for historic preservation and stewards of several historic buildings owned by the City of Columbia and Richland County.
This organization's generous annual grant cycle has nurtured a large amount of historic preservation in Columbia. They also maintain an informative website about local landmarks in the city and county.
Trying to do research on your building? Check out this great resource at the main library on Assembly Street. Or you can look at their online resources in the digital library.
