News 12 at 6, September 5, 2008

NORTH AUGUSTA--It stood for over one hundred years. It's been known by a number of names: The Buffalo Room, Seven Gables and most recently the Palmetto House.

Its path has not always been a smooth one, but one way or another, it has a long legacy.

Way back in 1902, when North Augusta was in its infancy, the North Augusta Hotel Company built a monstrosity of a hotel called Hampton Terrace.

It was dubbed the "most magnificent winter resort in the world." Celebrities like Albert Einstein came to hob-knob and stay in one of the hotel's 500 rooms and play on the world class golf course. But in 1916, a fire leveled it.

A nearby hunting lodge managed to survive the fire and would play an interesting role in North Augusta's history.

By 1989, it was a restaurant. It became front page news when it was shut down because then owner Bruce Salter refused to serve african-americans.
His son Randy re-opened the restaurant a few years later, but he too fell in trouble with the law when he was arrested on drug and weapons charges. It eventually was auctioned off.

It re-opened less than a year ago as The Palmetto House at Seven Gables. But 92 years after a fire destroyed the Hampton Terrace. It's neighbor, The Palmetto House fell to the same fate.