Lever Building

National Register Listing

Street Address:

1613 Main St., Columbia, SC (Richland County)

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NRHP Nomination

Record Number:

S10817740045

Description and Narrative:

Built ca. 1903 by the contractor C. M. Lide, Jr., the Lever Building is a three-story structure with a façade of brown brick and terra cotta and an elaborate entablature and balustrade. The decorative details of the building are in the Classical Revival mode. Walter D. Lever, the original owner, was a successful Columbia merchant known as “Lever-the-Shoe-Man.” In the 1920s the building was used by Draughon’s Practical Business College, a Nashville based business school with thirty locations in the Southeast. Although the first floor storefront has been altered, cast iron pilasters on far sides of building and denticulated cornice extending the width of the building survive. The windows on the far left and right of the second story are enframed by a brick Gibbs surround. The third story’s center two windows have round-headed brick arches with terra cotta pilaster capitals serving as imposts of the arches. Above the cornice is a balustrade flanked by rectangular brick sections with recessed panels. In the terra cotta frieze the word Lever is flanked by swags and torches. Listed in the National Register March 2, 1979.

Period of Significance:

circa 1903

Level of Significance:

State

Area of Significance:

Architecture

National Register Determination:

listed

Date of Certification:

March 2 1979

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