Elmwood Park is a residential neighborhood and

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

in what is now the center of

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the city ...

. Founded in the early 1900s, it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

as Elmwood Park Historic District in 1991.SCDAH
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History

The land in the neighborhood was originally the State Fair Grounds, beyond the city limits. The area that is now between Park Street and Wayne Street was used for fairgrounds and a race track. After the state fair moved to its current location adjacent to the University of South Carolina's Williams-Brice Stadium, the various original owners of the area began selling the parcels for real estate development, as well as at least one owner leaving a bequeath in his will for local school development. Eventually, the lots were subdivided and offered to the public at a public auction sale in 1905. This auction date is generally recognized as the establishment of Elmwood Park. As the neighborhood quickly developed, it was annexed by the City of Columbia in 1907. This created the first suburb and the first expansion of the city outside its original planned boundaries.

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register lists 279 homes in the neighborhood, with 219 homes contributing. The housing styles range from Queen Anne style,

American Foursquare The American Foursquare or American Four Square is an American house style popular from the mid-1890s to the late 1930s. A reaction to the ornate and mass-produced elements of the Victorian architecture, Victorian and other Revival styles popul ...

, gable-front houses, and

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archi ...

houses, to the smaller one-story structures that are predominantly

American Craftsman American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. Its ...

influenced. Brick bungalows are also present, largely later-built from the 1920s and 1930s. A number of shotgun houses still stand in the earliest developed part of the neighborhood. Two historic schools are located in the neighborhood, the still-functioning Logan Elementary, and the former Wardlaw Junior High, which is now a residential senior facility known as Wardlaw Apartments. Logan School is the work of a local architect, J. Carroll Johnson. James Burwell Urquhart, another prominent Columbia architect, designed Wardlaw Junior High School. Logan was built in 1913 and added to the National Register in 1979. Wardlaw was built in 1927 and added to the National Register in 1984.SCDAH
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References

External links

Historic Elmwood Park Neighborhood Association

{{authority control Geography of Columbia, South Carolina Neighborhoods in South Carolina Houses in Columbia, South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Columbia, South Carolina Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina