Historic Orangeburg hotel to house SCSU students

The S.C. State University Real Estate Foundation is leasing Russell Street Suites Apartments at 1499 Russell St. from California-based Red Curb Investments to house about 89 students.

“Additional off-campus housing was required to accommodate the increase in freshmen/new student enrollment and the requirement for freshmen students to be housed on campus proper,” S.C. State Director of University Relations Sam Watson said.

“We have received nearly 15,000 applications for admission. We anticipate being able to accommodate an overall enrollment of around 3,000 students this fall,” he said.

Room-and-board rates will be similar to those for on-campus housing, Watson said.

The once-vacant building was given renewed life about 16 years ago.

Columbia attorney Robert Lewis purchased the 28,000-square-foot building in January 2007 with the intention of transforming it into university housing.

The $1.6 million renovation of the building began in June 2008 and included plaster repair and painting, as well as the installation of updated plumbing, electrical, security, air-conditioning, fire-suppression and sprinkler systems.

The building at one time also housed a bridal shop and a men’s clothing store.

The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The former Hotel Eutaw is no stranger to housing both S.C. State and Claflin students.

S.C. State used the building briefly for student housing in the early 1990s, and real estate agents tried for years to persuade the institution’s foundation to buy the property.

In 2009, about 50 Claflin students occupied the building during the 2009-10 academic year.

From 2009 to about 2015, Claflin housed as many as 85 students at one time in the building.

Claflin has not housed students in the building for several years, according to school officials.

The seven-story Hotel Eutaw was considered one of the most modern and best-equipped hotels in a community of Orangeburg’s size when it opened for business in 1927.

Two years later, the stock market collapsed, sending the nation into the Great Depression. By 1934, ownership of the hotel had transferred to a group of Orangeburg business people.

For decades, the hotel was renowned for its dining facilities and as a space for wedding receptions and other occasions.

But cars gradually replaced trains as the preferred mode of travel and U.S. Highway 301 diverted traffic from Russell Street to John C. Calhoun Drive. Newer motels grew up along the streamlined federal highway route, offering more parking and more first-floor guest rooms than the Hotel Eutaw could provide.

The T&D was published from the hotel’s lobby and dining room for nearly a month in late 1972 following a devastating fire at its physical plant.

In 1984, the hotel was renovated and renamed the Russell Street Inn. A bank foreclosed against the hotel’s then-owner in 1987. New owners took over the hotel in 1990, but it closed again in 1992.

In 1997, Regency Development Associates Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., stepped forward with a $1.3 million plan to divide the building into 32 apartments for senior citizens. City Council endorsed the project and provided $10,000. However, anticipated state grant money was not forthcoming.

Around 2005, the Claflin University Community Development Corp. also looked at purchasing the former hotel. The university did some engineering studies to see if it could be turned into low-income housing, but the project was not deemed feasible.

In addition to the Russell Street property, the S.C. State Real Estate Foundation is also leasing other off-campus buildings for student housing.

These include:

• University Village (Chestnut Street)
• Campus Corner (Campus Drive)
• Rhames Campus Suites (Frederick Street)
• Rutledge Ensuites (Lovell Street)
• University Corner (Dorchester Street)
• Chestnut Inn (Chestnut Street)

The university is also:

• Renovating Queens Village, which will add 56 beds.
• Conducting $10 million in renovations to Sojourner Truth Hall, which will free up beds. Currently only about a third of the beds in Truth Hall were being used because of the fire and safety issues on its top seven floors.

“President Alexander Conyers is developing strategies for additional housing,” Watson said.