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The Harden Street Substation is historically significant for its strong association with segregation in Columbia. It is an excellent example of the duplicative architecture often built to maintain institutional segregation. It was built in 1953 to employ the Columbia Fire Department’s first African American firemen and to serve the predominately African American Waverly community. By 1921, the only employment allowed African Americans in the Columbia Fire Department was in menial capacities such as janitors. In 1947, Clarence Mitchell, a veteran of World War II and a resident of the Waverly community, took and passed the city’s civil service exam and applied for employment as a fireman with the Columbia Fire Department. He was denied employment on the grounds that state law prohibited white and black citizens working together in public buildings, and there were no fire department substations for African Americans. After the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) threatened to bring a lawsuit, the Columbia city council decided to build a new substation and to staff it with African American firemen under white officers. Clarence Mitchell and seven other men were hired, completed a rigorous training program, and began serving as fireman at the new Harden Street Substation. Designed by Heyward Singley, a prominent local architect, the new substation was a state-of-the-art facility and a concrete step toward the integration of the Columbia Fire Department. It is a two-story brick municipal fire station with a rectangular plan and a flat roof constructed in the Moderne style. Listed in the National Register September 28, 2005.

View the complete text of the nomination form for this National Register property. In addition, the Historic Resources of Segregation in Columbia, South Carolina, 1880-1960 includes historical background information for this and other related National Register properties.

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