DeCosta was early force for preservation

"I grew up playing on the lumber pile, and I went to work as my father's workman when I was about 12 years old ... and I've been working ever since."

Those words were spoken by retired contractor Herbert DeCosta Jr., a longtime Charleston contractor interviewed on tape by the Historic Charleston Foundation.

DeCosta died earlier this month at age 85. His legacy is scattered about Charleston's older neighborhoods; and if that legacy can't be readily identified, that only underscores how good a job he did.

Before big bucks started flowing into the city, making possible impressive and, on occasion excessive, advances in historic renovations, people here fixed up the old buildings guided by modest means and common sense.

No one represents this tradition better than DeCosta.

Construction was in his blood. His grandfather founded a contracting company in the late 19th century. While the company shut down after his early and untimely death, Herbert DeCosta Sr. revived it once he finished school.

The younger DeCosta began working for his father and took over the company upon his father's death in 1960.

Around that time, the Historic Charleston Foundation was coming up with the innovative idea of preserving homes through a revolving fund, a pool of money it used to buy at-risk historic homes, stabilize them and resell them to preservation-minded buyers.

DeCosta's company also built new buildings in Anderson, Columbia, Newberry and elsewhere; but his career would be characterized strongly by his work with the foundation's first director Frances Edmunds.

Together, they saved many buildings at risk of falling down in a city where few people had much money.

DeCosta recalled rebuilding a masonry foundation underneath the brick home at the northeast corner of Laurens and Anson streets. The home was supported only by steel rails used to move it from where the Gaillard Auditorium was to be built. "That was a dangerous job," DeCosta recalled, "but we got it done."

He understood that Edmunds didn't want to put more money into stabilizing a house than was necessary because that might prevent the foundation from buying and saving another house.

The pair also collaborated on a College of Charleston-owned home built in 1805 at the northeast corner of Wentworth and Coming streets. The woodframe house had been converted into a grocery store, and its second floor had been stuccoed over.

The college felt it should be torn down, and DeCosta did, too — at least at first. Then he took a closer look and restored it to something more akin to its original residential function. The college now has offices there, and most who pass by it probably don't understand DeCosta's role in preserving it.

"We thought the best thing was to take the stucco off, and it has just made all the difference in the world," he said. "Of course, the people who don't remember that don't appreciate that, but every time I drive by and see that, I remember."

After he retired in 1990, DeCosta served as a foundation trustee, and the foundation thanked him for all his work by giving him its highest award, the one named in honor of his longtime collaborator, Frances Edmunds.

That was in 2002, and he recorded his interview a year later.

"When I was very active in restoration here people didn't dream of doing the museum-type restorations," he said on that videotape. "People just didn't have any money."

Robert Behre may be reached at 937-5771 or by fax at 937-5579. His e-mail address is rbehre@postandcourier.com, and his mailing address is 134 Columbus St., Charleston, SC 29403.

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