MELINDA WALDROP PROFILE

Finding the sign changed the game. During renovations of the circa 1866 Robinson Building at 1621 Main St. in downtown Columbia, workers unearthed a remnant of the structure’s stint as a vaudeville and silent theater from 1909-1... Read More

The small plot of land tucked behind office buildings on Columbia College’s campus is serving a big purpose. The newly formed Columbia College gardening club and the fruits — and vegetables and herbs — of its labors ... Read More

Nadia Theodore is a self-professed optimist, a trait which leads the Consul General of Canada to view the current friction over steel and aluminum tariffs between Canada and the United States as a stumbling block that will be resolved be... Read More

The realities of planning a trip, perhaps for the Christmas holidays, were a serious consideration for people of color in the pre-Civil Rights Act era — especially in the segregated American South. The University of So... Read More

Anna Sveinbjornsdottir knew her company faced a challenge when it took on the interior design of Hotel Trundle, downtown Columbia’s newest boutique hotel carved out of three unoccupied buildings. Sveinbjornsdottir, manager of in... Read More

When the Central Carolina Community Foundation needed to expand to a larger location, the Midlands nonprofit leader scoured the greater Columbia area. But nothing could top the place foundation officials saw when they first began sear... Read More

The average pedestrian out for a late autumn stroll downtown likely has no idea what lies beneath the stately building at the corner of Main and Washington streets. The first and second floors of the Arcade Mall, built in 1912, rehabi... Read More

One of Columbia’s most distinct buildings threw itself a party on Monday. The Arcade Mall at the corner of Main and Washington streets celebrated its grand re-opening with refreshments from retail tenants and remarks from develo... Read More

Dominion Energy has filed a revision to its alternative proposal to acquire SCANA Corp. that the Virginia-based company says will lower bills paid by the average S.C. Electric & Gas customer to rates slightly below those established ... Read More

The changing realities of retail made Mark Rosenbaum come up with a different way of doing business. With fundamental principles of the industry undergoing seismic shifts, the way students at the University of South Carolina’s C... Read More

When diners at Terra restaurant in West Columbia sample a distinctive dessert featuring a local pumpkin variety few have ever tasted, they’ll have David Shields to thank. The Dutch Fork pumpkin is one example of once-indigenous ... Read More

As days get shorter and leaves more colorful, fall festivals continue throughout Columbia. The 31st annual Five Points Chili Cook-Off was held Nov. 3, with thousands of people and a few of their four-legged friends turning out to enjoy y... Read More

When his NFL career ended, Connor Shaw’s competitive streak didn’t go away. Now, the record-setting University of South Carolina quarterback has found a new outlet for that drive — and his desire to help people. Shaw... Read More

From dinosaurs to doomed monkeys, Greg and Brandi Glenn have seen — and carved — it all. The husband-and-wife team who make up sand sculpting company Sandscapes were back on familiar turf last week, carving Tyrannosaurus r... Read More

Wes Lyles knows what words likely spring to mind when people picture a brewery. Industrial. No-frills. Utilitarian. None of that is what the president of Studio 2LR Architecture and Interiors envisions for his firm’s latest p... Read More

Columbia’s newest downtown commercial real estate firm is made up of some familiar faces. Bruce Harper is managing partner at Trinity Partners’ first Columbia location at 1556 Main St. Harper is a former p... Read More

Several months ago, the whine of power saws and the pounding of hammers echoed through empty space at 929 Gervais Street. Now, diners chat at tastefully lit tables at 929 Kitchen and Bar. Several feet away, a cutout of Marilyn Monroe ... Read More

Malissa Burnette was proud to see her daughter, Grant, graduate from law school this spring — almost as proud as she was when Grant met Sarah Leverette. Leverette, a legal pioneer and Columbia community fixture, died Wednesday. ... Read More

Recent acquisitions, mergers and leadership changes have highlighted the continued growth of two area banks, but leaders at both organizations say they remain focused on local communities. Greg Lapointe grew up in Columbia, graduating... Read More

Sarah Monteith Rama grew up shopping on Devine Street, and she hopes her new business will give more generations a chance to make similar memories. Rama is opening Duck Duck Goose, the brick-and-mortar manifestation of her successful ... Read More

Rob Viglione wants to change the world through cryptocurrency. While Viglione, founder of privacy-centric cryptocurrency ZenCash and a PhD candidate in finance at the University of South Carolina, served as a military scientist workin... Read More

The financial future Dominik Mjartan envisions includes both bankers and baristas. Standing in the glass-fronted lobby of the soon-to-be-christened Optus Bank on Main Street in downtown Columbia, Mjartan can see it clearly: bank staff... Read More

As he surveyed glass cases filled with memorabilia from his life in public service, former S.C. governor and U.S. Secretary of Education Dick Riley came to a realization. “I’ve had a fascinating life,” Riley told an ... Read More

As a federal judge weighs whether to grant an S.C. Electric & Gas request for an injunction staying temporary rate cuts ordered by the S.C. Public Service Commission, the company bidding to acquire the utility’s paren... Read More

S.C. Community Bank has been removed from the FDIC’s troubled bank list as the organization continues a turnaround. At the close of the second quarter of 2018, the bank’s total assets have increased from a low of $47.8 mil... Read More

Danielle Park is not a typical millennial. At 32, she just became a homeowner for the third time, moving with her husband to a custom-built house in Chapin. But then again, a typical millennial is becoming an oxymoron in the reside... Read More

Diane Bunnell has never seen anything like it. The housing demand engulfing the nation and mirrored in Midlands markets, coupled with a lack of inventory, has created uncharted territory in Bunnell’s residential real estate fiel... Read More

This morning, I walked into the office and sat down at my desk. An unremarkable sentence. An unremarkable act. Yesterday, five people in Annapolis, Md., did the same unremarkable thing — for the last time. A gunman opened ... Read More

Emile DeFelice saw promise in an empty street. In 2012, as DeFelice considered a new location for his popular and growing street market, the heart of downtown Columbia cropped up as a candidate. Before making any decisions, DeFelice d... Read More

The S.C. Legislature signaled resounding approval for a deal struck Wednesday by a joint legislative committee, easily passing two bills that address fallout from the failed nuclear reactor project at the V.C. Summer power station. But t... Read More

On a recent Thursday afternoon, Matt Kennell had lunch in downtown Columbia with his daughter. Sitting by a window at Main Street Public House, he marveled at the view. “It was like being in Manhattan,” said Kennell, presi... Read More

The most obvious change to the renovated and newly reopened Hampton-Preston Mansion is the burnt ochre color that replaced its previous beige façade. But it’s not the most profound. Inside the 19th-century mansion at 1... Read More

Diane Carr has had the slogan at the ready for years. On Tuesday, as Midlands Technical College and the University of South Carolina signed an agreement to streamline the transfer process for MTC students pursuing an undergraduate edu... Read More

Few things are as quintessentially American as noshing on a hot dog at a baseball game. But Columbia Fireflies fans in the mood to spice things up a bit this summer have another option available to them: crickets. Terminix Service ... Read More

Making her first trip to Columbia as part of National Small Business Week, Linda McMahon emphasized how her entrepreneurial experience makes her an empathetic advocate for the nation’s 30 million small businesses. McMahon, admin... Read More

When D. Nichole Davis decided to go to law school, the firm where she worked as a paralegal rallied around her, handwriting letters of support. Nearly 70 years earlier, Sarah Leverette faced a slightly different environment, periodica... Read More

For a moment, Rita Patel had to fight back tears. Seeing a dream become reality can have that effect on a person. Patel and her husband and investment partner, Marcus Munse, celebrated the soft opening of Hotel Trundle, a 41-room b... Read More

In the nights following the devastating flood of 2015, Michael Marsha sat on the porch of his Lake Katherine home, listening to the silence. “It was pretty eerie,” Marsha said. “It was totally dark. No one was drivin... Read More

A rapid rise in senior home health care service is not likely to subside soon, not with an estimated 10,000 baby boomers retiring per day. Alexandria Brown’s family got in on the ground floor of the fast-growing industry. Bro... Read More

Although some questions linger, the two men leading the partnership formed by Palmetto Health and Greenville Health System say the new relationship is working out better than imagined. “I certainly figured that Chuck and I would... Read More

In the nights following the devastating flood of 2015, Michael Marsha sat on the porch of his Lake Katherine home, listening to the silence. “It was pretty eerie,” Marsha said. “It was totally dark. No one was drivin... Read More