The Main Street District in downtown Columbia holds rich history, with 36 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Perhaps you’ve strolled down Main Street and seen a beer barrel on top of a post, which sits right outside of 1633 Main St., a historic event venue called The Pastor’s Study.
“My family had several of the properties down here on Main Street, and they lived in the backyard facing Assembly Street, and my great-great-grandfather was John Seegers, a German immigrant who started off as a grocer, then became a restaurateur, a brewer, bottler, and then a legislator ,” says Martha Fowler, one of the three managing partners of The Pastor’s Study.
John C. Seegers built and owned several buildings on Main Street that had been destroyed in the fire of 1865, two of which still remain with family members. Seegers and his business partner and son-in-law, C.C. Habenicht, were among Columbia businessmen who, not only contributed to the rebuilding of Main Street, but who also played a huge part in the local saloon and brewery industry of the 1800s. Seegers and Habenicht owned several businesses including ice factories, bottling plants, breweries, and saloons.
The front of The Pastor’s Study has a historical front that matches that of which it had back in the 1880s.
“A cousin of mine had a photograph under her bed of what the building used to be, and that’s how we knew how to restore it to what it was. The top of the building had been shaved off and stuccoed over, so we had no idea what we were going to find upstairs,” said Fowler…