Now known as the Barringer Building, this twelve-story structure on the corner of Main and Washington Streets once towered downtown as the first skyscraper built in Columbia. Architectural firm Brite & Bacon of New York designed the building for Edwin Robertson, president of the National Loan and Exchange Bank, the largest bank in the state. Robertson had previously established the Canal Dime Savings Bank, whose original building still stands at 1530 Main Street.
The National Loan and Exchange Bank Building opened in 1903. It was better known as simply “the Skyscraper.” As it was the tallest structure in the state and much of the south, people often identified their location in reference to their mileage from the Skyscraper. The excessive height of the building was achievable due to construction technology developed in Chicago during the 1880s, such as electric elevators and high-pressure water systems. The building was designed in the Georgian Revival Style, with decorated stone upper and lower floors. A cantilevered bronze cornice originally encircled the roof, but it was removed in 1965 due to safety concerns. The building housed the National Loan and Exchange Bank as well as other smaller companies through the 1930s.
The building was sold to the Liberty Life Insurance Company in 1938 and later transferred to the Columbia Hotel Company. The current name of the building was adopted in 1953 when the Barringer Corporation acquired the building. Under this new ownership the structure was completely renovated, most notably with the removal of the aforementioned cornice. The Barringer Corporation held the building until 1974. In 1979 the National Loan and Exchange Bank Building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Bank of Columbia moved into the building in the late 1980s, but left the property years later. In 1998 HBB Associates purchased the building and worked to renovate the space. Lack of tenants caused the company to vacate in 2000.
Three years later Capitol Places purchased the building and began converting the historic structure into downtown residential space. Capitol Places IV opened in 2006 with seventy-five apartments in the National Loan and Exchange Bank Building, or better known as the Barringer building.
For more on this and other apartment buildings, check out Capitol Places.
