Opening date set for new Columbia coffee shop located in historic house
A new coffee shop has set a grand opening date for a location in a renovated historic home in Columbia.
Knowledge Perk, a coffee company that has several locations in the Carolinas, will have a grand opening for itsshop at 1527 Gervais St. on April 17, according to Monday posts on the company’s social media platforms. The shop will open at 6 a.m. that day, and the first 100 customers will get Knowledge Perk gift cards. There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony at 11 a.m.
The shop will be located in the W.B. Smith Whaley House, a historic structure that for years was the location of Dunbar Funeral Home. It is an example of Queen Anne architecture and is widely recognizable to people traveling down Gervais Street because of its soaring turret on the southeast corner of the building.
The house is roughly across the street from the University of South Carolina’s law school.
Knowledge Perk has locations in Rock Hill and Fort Mill, as well a couple spots in North Carolina. The company offers a robust menu of light roast, dark roast and cold brew coffee, as well as espresso, lattes and more. It describes itself on its website as “small-batch roastery with a mission to transform the way you experience coffee and the global community that brings it to you.”
According to the state Department of Archives and History, the house at 1527 Gervais St. was built in 1892 and 1893 by W.B. Smith Whaley. An entry from the home’s National Register description said Whaley “specialized in the design, engineering and building of cotton mills as well as in the construction of residences” and was responsible for the design and construction of the Olympia, Granby and Richland cotton mills.
A group of new apartments also have been developed on the home’s upper floors.
This story was originally published April 11, 2023 at 12:04 PM.
