Dillon community alliance
The Dillon Community Alliance (DCA) commissioned the Innova Design Team, which included Landmark Preservation Consulting LLC (LPC) to conduct a conditions assessment for 109 North Railroad Avenue and 112 West Main Street in Dillon, South Carolina. LPC’s primary focus was on 109 North Railroad Avenue, a 1940s building which served the community as a doctor’s office. This building is indicative of the Streamline Moderne architectural style that was popularized between world wars. Features include its bare rectangular shape, notable curved south corner, sleek stucco exterior, and glass block windows. Rehabilitation plans call for the use of 109 North Railroad Avenue as DCA’s home office and a community space. The second building assessed, located at 112 West Main Street, no longer retains its roof and DCA plans to utilize the space as an outdoor courtyard space for the community. The purpose of this assessment was to identify building deficiencies and to make recommendations for the future rehabilitation of the buildings.
At project outset, we were unsure how much, if any, of the original interior building fabric remained in 109 N Railroad Ave as a previous rehabilitation program was begun but left unfinished. The interior consisted of a mix of modern framing and historic framing from the 1940s doctor’s office. Various abandoned venting and modern ductwork throughout the interior demonstrated several iterations of heating and cooling systems. In select areas, historic hardware was present on wood hollow-core doors, as well as physical evidence where original hardware had been replaced. LPC provided recommendations for the limited interior historic materials remaining.
During the assessment, physical evidence on the exposed brick of the northeast and southwest walls indicated that these walls pre-dated the 1940s Streamline Moderne doctor’s office. Upon further investigation, which included locating historic images and reviewing Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps available through the South Carolina Digital Library, revealed that a previous brick building of similar dimensions had been located on the site of 109 North Railroad Avenue as early as 1903. The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps also indicated that the building located at 112 West Main Street was also extant in 1903.
