By Natalie M. ZeiglerCity Manager
Adaptive reuse, or developing uses for historic buildings other than their original purpose, has been key to downtown Hartsville’s vitality.
The iconic J.L. Coker Company Building, a strikingly beautiful retail building dating to 1909, remains important as the location of Hilex Poly and the YMCA. The Arcade Hotel, a symbol of Hartsville’s prosperity a century ago in 1913, is still a sign of strength as the home of SPC Credit Union.
Adaptive reuse allows us to maintain and preserve some of what made our city unique in the past while we meet the needs of today. The city government took on an important piece of this process when it decided to transform the former Bank of Hartsville/Bank of America building into Hartsville’s new City Hall. Located at 100 E. Carolina Ave., this 110-year-old building is a very visible pieces of downtown. It could have been a persistent vacancy, however, because modern banking requires space for a Drive-Thru, which this building does not have.
After decades of operation, our former City Hall closed for the last time yesterday. Neither the old nor the new location will be open today as we move into our new home. The new City Hall opens next Monday, April 8, and will include our Finance Department, Administrative Services, City Manager’s Office, and Special Projects/Planning. Our new, much-improved City Council chamber has also been built at the site, with more space and audio/visual capability. The first regular Council meeting in the new space comes next week on Tuesday, April 9 at 6 p.m. We are also inviting the public to a reception to show off the new building the day of the May 14 meeting at 5 p.m.
The building’s history as a bank has been particularly useful for our Finance Department. The teller counters in the main lobby have been renovated and will now serve as the place for city utility customers to make walk-in payments with our employees. The lack of a Drive-Thru location has been resolved by an excellent partnership with SPC Credit Union, which now accepts Drive-Thru utility bill payments for the City at its location in the old Arcade Hotel, 204 N. Fifth St. These remain just a couple of ways for customers to handle those bills, since they are also accepted by mail, online or by automatic bank draft.
Our city is changing and growing all the time, a process necessary for us to remain a strong community now and in the future. As we evolve, we should always consider how to use the resources given to us by Hartsville’s past, like the building which has become City Hall. I hope our residents can come by to see their new facility.
