| | Issue #21.35 :: 08/27/2008 - 09/02/2008 | 701 Lives
Former Olympia Community Center Set to Re-Open with the Arts a Key Part
| BY AL DOZIER
| Local developer Richard Burts wants the old Pacific Mills Community Building to have the same strong community appeal it held for decades in Columbia’s former textile community of Olympia.
The building will not offer the basketball and square dancing sites enjoyed by many in the early part of the 20th century, but Burts hopes it will be a modern-day community attraction. “I want it to be a place to go and have fun,” he says of the historic site at 701 Whaley St. “I don’t want it blocked from public access.”
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| Formerly the Pacific Mills Community Building, the renovated 701 Whaley building in Columbia’s old cotton mill community of Olympia will serve several functions, including providing live/work space for artists. Photo by Jonathan Sharpe |
It hasn’t been much of anything lately.
From 1996 to 2000 the building housed Gallery 701, a studio for artists that was home to arts shows and concerts until the roof collapsed in 2000.
The structure was headed for demolition until Burts and another local real estate investor, Robert Lewis, decided to undertake a $6 million restoration of the 35,000-square-foot building that would continue its tradition as a community landmark.
Burts knew it was a risky undertaking, but found it appealing. “I just have an attraction to old buildings,” he says.
With rotting floors and crumbling ceilings, the building was a challenging restoration project.
Recapturing the original structure was difficult if not impossible at times, Burts says. In one example, he had to obtain flooring from a textile plant in Seneca. In another, he traipsed around a local landfill trying to find a roof support crown that had fallen into rubble that was discarded from the building. He found it.
Now, a grand opening of the restored building, dubbed 701 Whaley, is scheduled for Oct. 23, but Burts says he has a hard-earned certificate of occupancy that becomes effective Monday.
Plans for the building have not been finalized, but Burts foresees loft apartments, an art gallery, a restaurant and a public reception area.
It will be far different from the old community center, which housed an auditorium for dancing, a bowling alley, a barbershop and a basketball court. Those are now just memories to seniors in the Olympia area, but remnants of that era will persevere in the Center for Contemporary Art, which is slated to open at the site Oct. 16.
The first exhibitions in the center will focus on the life and times of the textile industry, which dominated Olympia and many other parts of South Carolina for more than half a century. The planned displays include photographs by Phil Moody of Rock Hill, fabric works from Elizabeth Melton of Rock Hill, textile art from Ellen Kochansky of Pickens and drawings and painting by Scotty Peek of Columbia.
The center has generated a lot of buzz in the arts circles of Columbia. It will offer exhibitions with a regional, national and international scope in a 2,500-square-foot gallery as well as an artist-in-residence program in 1,200 square feet of live/work space, where artists will conduct six-, 10- or 12-week residencies.
Also planned for the Center for Contemporary Art at 701 Whaley: programs on performing, literary and media arts in the gallery between exhibitions.
Wim Roefs, who owns the if ART gallery in the Vista, is one of many volunteer leaders of the center. Roefs says its board consists of people with strong ties to the arts community, such as Steve Morrison, former president of the Columbia Museum of Art board, and Anne Sinclair, a former Columbia City Council member.
Funding the center will be a challenge, Roefs says. “People are not going to throw money at us,” he says. “We will have to go out and find corporate sponsors. We will have to raise money, but I’m reasonably optimistic people will want to be part of it.”
In that regard, Roefs says Columbia artist Ethel Brody has committed to sponsoring an artist-in-residency program at the center for three years. A recent kickoff meeting for the program drew a throng of interested participants and generated the first 30 memberships, he says.
Educational programs for adults and children, including workshops, lectures,
open studios, panel discussions, group tours and school presentations are also on the agenda. The center will offer annual memberships, starting as low as $15 per year for students.
The arts will be an integral part of the remodeled building, but there will be much more, Burts says. When all is said and done, he says, the center will generate its own message. “Let the building tell a story.”
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