1639-1645 Main Street

Those looking for an example of how best to convert old historic downtown structures into more contemporary and mixed uses should check out the 1639-1645 block of building on Columbia’s Main Street.

Ground floor and basement spaces have been adapted to accommodate a new restaurant named Smoked. Second floor apartments have been rehabilitated for renewed residential use. Adapting three separate buildings for joint use required much thought.  Interior layouts needed to both honor the buildings’ historic relationship to each other, and their appearance from Main Street.

Placing the restaurants microbrewery at the rear of the center building and behind an interior storefront wall maximized square footage for dining rooms, minimized visibility from Main Street, but supplied views of brewing operations from the buildings’ interior. Reopening and restoring the 19th century skylight in the center building created an alluring spotlight for a new oyster bar.

Adaptive reuse at 1639-1645 Main Street carefully adhered to the National Park Service’s Standards for Rehabilitation to create a distinctive new destination on Columbia’s Main Street while protecting historic fabric in the city’s core. And it enabled its owners to claim historic tax credits.  

Smoked has already been awarded the Columbia Chamber’s 2022 Golden Nail Award not only, because it preserved three of Columbia’s oldest buildings, but also because it created a creative and energetic new destination in the heart of downtown.