Guignard mansion at Still Hopes turns 100

Hazel Fitzsimons, Nancy and Charles Duvall, Danny Sanford

On Thursday night, May 27, more than 160 diners celebrated the Still Hopes centennial, and they raised $15,000 for the Guignard Society. Still Hopes is the Cayce/West Columbia mansion occupied by the Guignard family until it was given to Trinity Episcopal Cathedral about 40 years ago. The official name today is the South Carolina Episcopal Home at Still Hopes on Still Hopes Drive, surprisingly enough.

The mission of the Guignard Society is to support the ministry of the South Carolina Episcopal Retirement Community by encouraging charitable gifts and legacy requests.

The house was completed in 1910 after almost four years of construction. It’s a twostory brick Georgian Revival mansion with a truncated hip roof. Ceilings are 12 feet high. Designed by Columbia architect George Waring with George Seastrunk as contractor, Still Hopes was built for Gabriel Alexander Guignard (1860–1926). Residing at Still Hopes with their brother were Dr. Jane Bruce Guignard, a prominent Columbia physician; Susan R. Guignard, head of Guignard Brick Works; and Mary Guignard, artist and a founder and principal benefactor of the Columbia Museum of Art.

Tom and Mary Jo Burbage

When it was completed 100 years ago, Still Hopes was the largest house ever built in Lexington County. On November 22, 1983, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. For information concerning membership in the Guignard Society, contact Kirsten Moorman at the office of development at Still Hopes, 739-5006 or kmoorman@stillhopes .org.