Talk about Town: Here’s what you missed. The pool at 701 Whaley and Gadsden Place
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Talk about Town
Talk about Town is a monthly series hosted by The State reporter Laurryn Salem on Instagram. Laurryn takes readers on behind-the-scenes looks and exclusive tours of new local businesses coming to the Midlands. Head to
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Talk about Town: Here’s what you missed. The pool at 701 Whaley and Gadsden Place
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On this month’s Talk about Town series on Instagram, I visited 701 Whaley to see the progress of an indoor pool-turned-venue space and the Gadsden Place apartments in the Vista in Columbia.
After 2 years of historic renovations, developer Richard Burts and his team are nearly finished renovating an indoor swimming pool built in 1918 at 701 Whaley. The Pool at 701 Whaley, as it’s known now, was once a haven for mill workers and their families in the early 20th century.
Girls and boys had to use the pool at different times and boys were required to swim naked, said Burts. Now the pool is frozen in history under yards of glass, where it can be rented out for events. Up to 150 people at a time can party “Gatsby style” in the space with original tile work, high ceilings and brick walls in art-deco fashion.
When the pool was uncovered, Burts’ sons cleaned out dirt, debris, weeds and trash and sifted through all of it to salvage tile pieces for reuse. For Burts and his team, including Lee Ann Kornegay and Tom Chinn, 701 Whaley has been a passion project.
“We’re just the caretakers of this [building] for a little bit of time, so we want to leave it better than we found it,” said Burts.
An outdoor terrace, new lobby and bathrooms will complete the renovation worth around $3 million. Burts received historic tax credits to afford the renovations.
One aspect of the renovation that Burts said he had to get perfect was the HVAC. For weddings, the temperature has to be perfect for small or large groups and the machines needed to be almost silent.
A few finishing touches on the space should be completed by the end of the summer to be ready for an August wedding. The pool and terrace, which can host tented events, are considered phase 2 of renovations.
Burts will focus attention on his last project next, an old gym connected to the back of the building that will add a seventh venue space to 701 Whaley.
The venue is now booking events for the pool.
Across town at at 1209 and 1211 Gadsden St. between Gervais and Lady streets, another historic renovation in Columbia’s Vista is underway.
Scott Garvin, head architect of the Garvin Design Group, took a building circa 1920 that was once a bottling and fountain drink supply company known as WC Peeler and an auto supply company BW Clark and is turning it into apartments, retail and office space.
“We’re trying to get more people living in the Vista, which is what helped transform Main Street — when people started moving in to second floor apartments over retail units,” Garvin said.
On three floors, 12 units with two bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms each will be available to lease in the next couple months. Tenants can choose to use the second bedroom space as offices in their apartments, which Garvin said he imagines will be common. The ground floor units can be used for either retail or apartments.
Garvin was the architect for the first 701 Whaley building that opened in 2008, and has since completed preservation projects around Columbia like Palmetto Compress, Olympia and Granby Mills and 1649 Main St. that now is home to Hendrix restaurant and The Woody dance club.
Everything in the building that could be salvaged was kept in the Gadsden Place apartments, including beams that are still scorched from a fire in 1989. The beams will be polished off and left in place to keep the character of the building, said Garvin.
Talk about Town is a video series on The State newspaper’s Instagram account that runs the first Monday of each month. Laurryn Salem tours new businesses or developments before they open to give readers an exclusive look at what’s coming to town.
This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 10:06 AM.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated that boys and girls had to swim naked at the pool at 701 Whaley during the early 20th century, however only boys were required to do so.
