Hodge Hall

National Register Listing

Street Address:

South Carolina State College campus, Orangeburg, SC (Orangeburg County)

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NRHP Nomination

Record Number:

S10817738019

Description and Narrative:

Hodge Hall is significant as part of the expanding education capability of South Carolina State College. It is also significant as a competent Palladian design by architect Miller F. Whittaker, the director of the college’s mechanical arts department. Hodge Hall is a substantial brick building, built for the college’s agriculture and home economics departments. The design and supervision of the building’s construction were requirements for the fulfillment of Whittaker’s Master of Science degree from the architectural department of Kansas Agricultural College (professional architectural training was not then available for blacks in South Carolina). Whittaker was the state’s first registered African American architect. The two-story, stretcher bond brick building with a full basement, a flat roof and a parapet was constructed in 1928. S.C. State College students helped erect Hodge Hall. The building is nine bays wide and features a concrete water table, a corbeled concrete belt course, a concrete cornice, and original cast-iron lamps at the front entrance. The entrance is sheltered by a flat-roofed portico with paired fluted columns and pilaster responds. There are two, very large, modern brick additions on the rear of the building, but Hodge Hall retains its historical and architectural integrity. Listed in the National Register September 20, 1985.

Period of Significance:

1928

Level of Significance:

State

Area of Significance:

Architecture;Ethnic Heritage: Black;Education

National Register Determination:

listed

Date of Certification:

September 20 1985

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