A 1908 private residence built by the Taylor family is where the story of the Columbia Museum of Art, your stop here on Senate Street, begins. On Senate Street, adjacent to the University of South Carolina campus and just three blocks from the South Carolina State House, that Taylor House grew into something more — gallery wings were added, and even a round planetarium, so the house became the museum’s home for almost 50 years. When the museum opened in 1950, its first-exhibited collection came from the gifts and bequests of local collectors and included ten Old Master paintings, several by Joshua Reynolds, Scipione Pulzone, Juan de Pareja, and Artus Wolffort.
In 1954 the museum was one of 95 institutions chosen to receive Renaissance and Baroque donations from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and designated a regional center, it received, over the next 20 years, 78 examples. The Taylor House itself was recognized later with addition to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Picture the ten Old Master paintings that once opened this museum's collection, gathered among rooms, wings, and a round planetarium beside the campus and State House.