Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007

Allen planning new dorms but historic house would move

Allen University is planning an $18 million dormitory project that would expand and transform its small in-town campus.

But it might sacrifice its historic president's home in the process unless private donations can be collected to help move it.

The new project will provide housing for 476 students, allowing the private, historically black school to "cast a wider net" for more students and for students who want better accommodations, president Charles Young said.

"It drastically increases our capacity for new students," he said. "It makes us more competitive."

Allen, in Columbia's Waverly Neighborhood, now has an enrollment of about 600. It houses 340 students on campus, most in outdated housing. An additional 82 live off campus in arranged housing, mostly rental homes or apartments. Two dorm buildings would be built along Hampton Street between Pine and Harden.

But the $18 million in funding for the dorms would not include the estimated $200,000 it would cost to move the Robert Weston Mance House, he said. The twostory house was built in 1903 and housed university presidents and some of the Waverly neighborhood's most influential families.

Young said Allen is "assessing" its ability to save the home, but an agreement with the neighborhood association mandates only that a plaque be erected to mark where the home stood.

Preservationists hope the house can be saved.

"It's disturbing to me that the university would consider razing the house that represents the presidential history of their institution," said Robin Waites, executive director of the Historic Columbia Foundation.

Young said the university is seeking a third bid to move the home -- hoping it would come in lower than the first two -- and would like to move it, but that the dorm project is vital for the future of the university.

The lowest previous bid was $117,500 to move the house and $97,500 to renovate it, but that doesn't include land costs. The university is negotiating with the city to move the house to a city-owned lot on nearby Heidt Street.

Founded in 1870 by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Allen was the first institution of higher education in South Carolina founded by African-Americans to educate African-Americans.

The net gain in on-campus housing is uncertain at this time, because other buildings could, at some point, be renovated for other purposes or razed.

Most notably, Coppin Hall would eventually be converted into a fine arts center, Reid Hall could be converted into suites, perhaps for an honors dorm, and Higgins Hall could be razed.

"This is a journey for us," Young said.

The president said he would like the project to start this fall or early next year, but funding is still a challenge.

"We're praying," he said. "But along with prayer, we're trying to identify some lenders."

The project is deemed "transformational" for the university, according to Don Tomlin, a Columbia financier and developer asked by the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce to assist in the Allen project.

He said the university will likely seek funds through a federal loan program backed by the U.S. Department of Education.

Tomlin noted that the Stevens & Wilkinson-designed dorms are identical to dorms recently built at the College of Charleston and Clemson University.

"It's a significant enhancement," Tomlin said. "Their dorms are ancient -- all are in excess of 60 years old, and some are almost 100 years old."

Tomlin said he hopes "all the stars are in alignment and we can get donations to fund the cost" to move the house.

Waites noted that since Waverly was deemed a historic district in the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, nearly half of the 137 buildings and homes deemed significant in the register have been torn down.

The Mance House was deemed one of the most significant in 1989, Waites said.

Using federal dollars to fund the dorm project would require the S.C. Department of Archives and History to review any plans to raze the Mance house because it is deemed significant in the federal historic district.

But she and Tomlin both noted that renovations on the house through the years by the university -- such as adding faux brick siding and converting it to offices, has damaged some of its architectural significance.

The home would have to be significantly renovated to reflect its glory days.

Historic preservation has become more of an issue in downtown Columbia and its in-town neighborhoods because of an ongoing building boom.

Some of the destruction of historically or architecturally significant structures in the Waverly neighborhood through the years is because of churches growing, Waites said, and some is attributed to the growth of Benedict College and Allen.

"And some is just residents who can get more for the land than for the old house," she said.

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