Filling an entire city block at 1616 Blanding Street in Columbia, South Carolina, the Robert Mills House — also known as Robert Mills Historic House and Park or the Ainsley Hall House — sits on its parklike 4-acre parcel. Built in 1823 to a design by Robert Mills and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973 for its architectural significance, this home is owned and operated by the Historic Columbia Foundation. Imagine the early 19th-century life suggested by the decorative arts inside: American Federal, English Regency, and French Empire pieces furnish these rooms.
The house occupies a parklike 4-acre parcel that fills an entire city block in central Columbia. Up close you can appreciate the two-story masonry—brick set on a high basement with arcaded walls—and the carefully composed north-facing facade. A Classical projecting portico with four Ionic columns supports a gabled pediment, and the main entrance is crowned by a fanlight window.
Look for Robert Mills’s hallmark: the windows in the flanking bays set in round-arch openings. Step to the entrance and think of the symmetrical hall, where the stairwell is concealed behind a doorway matched by a false doorway on the opposite wall. Notice the four Ionic columns and round-arch windows, Robert Mills's architectural hallmark.