Situated within the two-mile square grid that defined Columbia's original city limits in 1786, Arsenal Hill enjoys the distinction of being one of the second state capital's oldest neighborhoods. Established by the 1820's as a fashionable residential neighborhood, Arsenal Hill recieved its name from the Palmetto Armory, founded here in 1850. In 1869, the former officer's quarters of Arsenal Academy, a military school that operated from 1842 to 1865, began serving as the South Carolina Governor's Mansion. Following the Civil War, the neighborhood became popular with middle-class African Americans, including noted photographer Richard Samuel Roberts. By the 1990s, the district's array of 19th- and early 20th- century architecture and its proximity to downtown inspired a revitalization movement that led this racially diverse community to renovate its historic homes for residential and commercial uses.
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