Columbia's Lorick House

From the outside, the Victorian gingerbread house at 1727 Hampton St. appears to have a sparkling new coat of icing.

The inside of the historic Lorick House is even more appealing. The law firm of Hall & Bowers spent “in the high six figures” to restore the home, according to Kevin Hall, a partner in the firm with Butch Bowers and Todd Carroll. The craftsmen at CelticWorks completed the project last summer, and Hall & Bowers welcomed about 250 friends through the double front doors for an open house in October. They’re rightly proud of their new office.

“We are invested in the community,” Hall said. “We wanted to give back to this community by restoring the home to its grandeur, and we wanted to come to work every day at a great place.”

The large double parlors in the front of the house create an ideal entry space and waiting area that make visitors feel welcome. The dining room feels like it was originally designed to be the board room/meeting space it has become. The upstairs bedrooms are just the right size for lawyers’ individual offices.

“It feels like a home more than an office,” Hall said. “Our kids can come here after school and find a place to do homework.”

The best homework spots are the small table in the kitchen and the soft chairs in the downstairs library (whose flat-screen TV is one of the few modern touches that doesn’t fit in seamlessly downstairs). On pretty days, the expansive porch is ideal to spread out and catch up on reading assignments.

Even on a block that features historic treasures such as Woodrow Wilson’s childhood home and the Chesnut Cottage, the Lorick House stands out. The Victorian structure has multiple chimneys (now more ornamental than functional), a wrap-around porch that’s really rounded and gingerbread-like moulding and columns.

The base for the two-story house was begun in the 1840s by Algernon Sidney Johnson, the city leader for whom Sidney Park was named before it was renamed Finlay Park. Gov. John Lawrence Manning owned it during his term in office 1852-54. Much of the fancy exterior work was added in the late 1800s. Preston C. Lorick bought the house in 1877, and it remained in his family until three years ago, when it was given to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

(The downtown Lorick House shouldn’t be confused with the Lorick Plantation House, which houses the Capital City/Lake Murray Visitors Center near Irmo. The extended Lorick family had a lot of clout in the area, and great taste in homes, in the 1800s.)

Hall & Bowers bought the property, which included a carriage house and 1.27 acres, from the Trust with strict requirements on what could be done to the buildings. The restorations couldn’t change the historic and architectural integrity of the property. Fortunately, the house was in good shape.

“The envelope that is the house was extraordinary,” Hall said.

The roof had to be replaced. With 18-inch masonry walls throughout, it was a chore to install new electrical wiring and the house’s first central heat and air conditioning system. But the most intense restoration was in the carriage house, where much of the wood was in some stage of rot. The bottom floor now is used for storage, and the upstairs has been converted into an apartment.

In the main house, the lower level kitchen cabinets weren’t original to the house and were replaced. Also, the firm had to add a ramp to the back of the main house and increase the size of one downstairs bathroom to provide wheelchair access. Otherwise, the frills, and the charm, of the old place was maintained, from ornate woodwork on the parlor room floor to an old wall phone in the hallway to fancy metal brackets outside. Of course, everything got a new coat of paint.

“It’s great that folks are willing to invest in a building like that” and protect a historical treasure, said Mike Bedenbaugh, director of the Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation. His nonprofit helped the National Trust market the house and set up deed restrictions but wasn’t involved in the restoration process. Bedenbaugh hasn’t been inside since the restoration but loves what he has seen from the outside.

Many law firms have moved into old homes in that area of Columbia, but few can boast structures as impressive as the Lorick House. That’s one of the things that drew Hall & Bowers to buy the place.

“Anybody who’s been in Columbia for any length of time has driven past and seen the house, but they didn’t know what was inside,” Hall said. “It’s been nice to have people see what we have done.”