1338 South Main Street
City Directories and History: (Barringer Building) Commonly known as the Barringer Building, Columbia’s first skyscraper was completed in October 1903 for the National Loan and Exchange Bank. The twelve-story Commercial style building is brick with rusticated stone on the lower two floors and stone detailing around the top floor. The 184 foot tall building is supported by a steel frame. Brickwork has a horizontally striped appearance: between rows of four bricks are recessed rows two bricks high. The twelfth floor is brick with stone keystones over windows and stone panels on either side of end windows. Stonework includes garland festoons and an ornamented torus under windows. John Cain of Columbia was the contractor and the design has been attributed to James Brite. Edwin Wales Robertson, president of the Loan and Exchange Bank, as well as a prosperous Columbia developer and entrepreneur is credited with the idea of erecting the building. In 1893, Robertson established the Canal Dime Savings Bank. By 1903 he had purchased controlling interests in two other banks to form the Loan and Exchange Bank, at the time the largest in South Carolina. The present name comes from the Barringer Corporation which owned the building from 1953 until 1974. The building was renovated in the 1960s. Listed in the National Register March 2, 1979. [Courtesy of the SC Dept. of Archives and History]
Columbia’s first skyscraper, the National Loan and Exchange Bank (now the Barringer) Building. Completed in October 1903 (John Cain the contractor, and the design attributed to James Brite), the 12-story building of brick and rusticated stone was the idea of Edwin Wales Robertson, prosperous Columbia developer (Wales Garden, for instance) and president of the Loan and Exchange which had been formed from two other banks. One of these was the Canal Dime Savings Bank, which Robertson had established in 1893 and for which the Richardsonian Romanesque building now housing Eckerds on Main Street was built.
(Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)
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