MYSTERY: There’s a big clue in this photo mystery

There’s a giveaway clue in this photo, but you’ll have to look closely.  Send your guess to feedback@statehousereport.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.

Our previous Mystery Photo

Our Feb. 25 mystery, “Top of building shows wear and tear,” was a photo submitted by loyal reader Bill Segars of Hartsville.  It shows the top of the old Babcock Building at the former S.C. State Hospital in Columbia, or what some readers called the old Bull Street lunatic asylum!

Congratulations to all  photo detectives who correctly identified this mystery:  Beth McGuire and Rebecca Davis,  both of Charleston; Chris Brooks of Mount Pleasant; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; and Boykin Beard of Camden.

Segars said he did some research that turned up some interesting facts about the Greek Revival building:

• Establishment note:  South Carolina State Legislature approved $30,000 to build the S.C. Lunatic Asylum and school for the deaf and dumb. This legislation made South Carolina the second state in the nation (after Virginia) to provide funds for the care and treatment of people with mental illnesses.
• Built: 1858-1885
• Size: 350,000+ sq. ft.
• Exterior material: Brick
• Known exterior changes: Additions 1876 (balance of south wing), 1882 (entire north wing), 1885 (center section) & renovation & additions 1920, renovations 1949, 1962, 1969, 1974
• Note: Name for Dr. James W. Babcock in 1969, superintendent 1891-1914
  

Graf provided more context:  “According to palmettoweekend.com:  Built between 1822 and 1827, the Babcock Building was the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum housing and treating the state’s mentally ill for nearly 200 years. The last of the asylum’s patients were removed in 1990 and the site was completely abandoned in 1996, the elements have worn away at the looming structure.  Once a city within a city, the 181- acre asylum property is in the process of rebirth. Just next-door to the Babcock building the Columbia Fireflies now play baseball, tech companies are moving in, a church has plans to move into the properties former power station.”

Send us a mystery:  If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)   Send it along to editor@charlestoncurrents.com.