On the Horseshoe

A complete guide to the historic campus, featuring archival photos along with a close look at the structures and the people who inhabited them.
Founded in 1801 as South Carolina College, the University of South Carolina is one of the nation’s oldest public colleges. Located in the heart of downtown Columbia and bound by Sumter, Pendleton, Bull, and Greene Streets, this historic landscape, known today as the Horseshoe, has both endured and prospered through more than two centuries of South Carolina’s often-turbulent history.
In On the Horseshoe: A Guide to the Historic Campus of the University of South Carolina, Elizabeth Cassidy West and Katharine Thompson Allen offer a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the historic Horseshoe. So much more than just a walking tour of Carolina’s historic original campus, On the Horseshoe features a wealth of archival photographs and drawings dating back to the nineteenth century and also provides a close look at the Horseshoe’s structures as well as the men and women who lived, worked, and studied in them.
A numbered map with corresponding descriptions locates more than two dozen structures on the original campus and includes the history of each one, the important events that took place there, and its current use. An accompanying Web site (www.sc.edu/horseshoe) provides additional information and images for those who wish to further their knowledge of the university’s history. Walter Edgar, Neuffer Professor of Southern Studies Emeritus and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at USC, provides a foreword.
“Whether a native of Columbia, a South Carolina alumnus or a visitor to the Palmetto State, On the Horseshoe is a must-read for those interested in one of the most storied and historic facets of South Carolina’s capital city.” —John M. Sherrer III, Historic Columbia Foundation
“Allen and West offer a well-researched and beautifully written narrative that highlights the physical and social histories of the campus. They seamlessly chronicle the construction of buildings, institutional traditions, the Civil War, slavery, Jim Crow, the civil rights movement, influential people, and ongoing memorialization efforts that showcase the rich and complex history of the university. This is an essential book for anyone interested in the University of South Carolina history, or southern history as a whole.” —Kelley Deetz, President’s Commission on Slavery and the University, University of Virginia