Preston C. Lorick House on Hampton Street in Columbia (Photo/SC Lawyers Weekly)
When John Kassel first walked into the 1895 house that currently is home to his Columbia law practice, he was captivated by the double staircase greeting him in the entry hall. He was at the Laurel Street house for a deposition with another law firm and, that day, he told the attorneys if they ever sold the house, he wanted to buy it.
Kassel calls himself an “old house lawyer,” compared to an “elevator lawyer,” which a colleague once described as being able to walk from his car in a parking garage to an elevator that takes him to his office.
“Lawyers work hard and you spend a lot of time — you spend a lot of hours in the building — and so it’s best to like where you work. And we do,” he said.
Kassel has plenty of company.
Thad Myers hosts several law practices in the pre-1840 Preston C. Lorick House in the Robert Mills Historic District, a few blocks away from Kassel. Myers had admired the Hampton Street house as a college student and always had his eye on it. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and neighbor to the Woodrow Wilson boyhood home, the Lorick House was the state governor’s mansion during John Lawrence Manning’s term of 1852-1854.
“You’d drive by and it just reminded you of old times and good times,” Myers said.
Attorneys across the country are finding historic buildings, with their large rooms and proximity to a community’s business or legal district, to be convenient locations for their practices.
Located just a few blocks from the storied Four Corners of Law in downtown Charleston, Alan Tanenbaum can walk to the courthouse from the circa 1790’s Cannon-Kirkland House on Church Street that is home to his law office and two others.
“They give us a sense of the history,” he said. “Where we’ve come from, where we’re going. And the design, to me, is stuff you don’t see anymore.”
People from around the world visit Charleston for its historic buildings. Tourists blend with locals going about their daily business in Charleston’s historic district.
“I think the office, the old building, people really do get a kick out of it. And they always ask about it and you tell these great stories about it,” said Arthur Pelzer, whose law office is in a former tenement building on Meeting Street near Broad Street.
John Chakeris represents clients in construction defect claims, so he has a respect for the structural integrity of the buildings that have been standing for more than 300 years in Charleston. The Calhoun Street building where his office is located is one of them. He said he got some good advice in preservation from a structural engineer who specializes in historic Charleston structures when he bought the building in 1998.
“He told me the house is just like an antique. And the house has to be maintained like an antique. And there’s always stuff that needs to be done to it. You’ve just got to be prepared for that,” he said.
Older properties require maintenance, which can be costly. And upgrades such as HVAC, electric wiring, Wi-Fi, and phone lines can be a difficult and expensive installation. The Lorick House in Columbia required $1 million in renovations and upgrades about a decade ago. Contemporary air handling systems can create moisture that causes wood to warp and plaster to loosen.
Occasionally there are hazards that come with a building that has been standing for more than two centuries. Henry Philpot of Philpot Law Firm in Greenville said a piece of plaster fell on another attorney’s head while he was sitting at his desk in their office on Broadus Avenue in the Pettigru Historic District.
Many of these properties, particularly the ones in Charleston and Columbia, survived two wars, fires, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and urban renewal efforts. Beginning in the 1960s’ many property owners found it was more cost-effective to demolish these historic buildings than it was to maintain and continue to live and work in them. If it wasn’t for their conversions into law or CPA offices, or funeral homes, many of these historic buildings would be gone.
Beyond the practical appeal of the buildings is the impression they present to clients, colleagues, and the community.
“I think the clients enjoy coming in, and they maybe feel a little more like we’re not going to leave them in a lurch, and we’ve been here a while, and should know what we’re doing by now,” Philpot said.
Myers said he wants the Lorick House to give clients the impression that he and his fellow attorneys in the building will take care of them.
Historic Columbia, a nonprofit preservation group in Columbia, has worked with several of the city’s law firms in their efforts to convert historic properties into an occupational purpose and preserve them. In addition to serving as a local history resource, Historic Columbia is a preservation consultant.
“I think what they’re prized for is their uniqueness, that the law firm has a certain identity, and you can pick that law firm out to a degree, by the building in which they operate,” said John Sherrer, Historic Columbia director of cultural resources. “And so I think there’s a certain pride to that.”
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