United States historic place
The Penn Center, formerly the Penn School, is an African-American cultural and educational center in the Corners Community, on Saint Helena Island. Founded in 1862 by Quaker and Unitarian missionaries from Pennsylvania, it was the first school founded in the Southern United States specifically for the education of African-Americans. It provided critical educational facilities to Gullah slaves freed after plantation owners fled the island, and continues to fulfill an educational mission. Leigh Richmond Miner photographed students and activities at the school.[3]
The campus was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1974.[1] Darrah Hall and Brick Baptist Church on the campus were declared part of Reconstruction Era National Monument in January 2017.[4] In spring of 2019, it became the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park, along with Fort Sumter.
Description and history
The Penn Center is located about one mile south of Frogmore on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The 47-acre (19 ha) campus is divided by the road, and includes a number of historic buildings related to the original function as a school, including classrooms, living spaces for students, teachers, and administrators. The oldest building on the campus is the 1855 Brick Church, built by the plantation owners of the island.[5]
At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Union Army forces quickly captured Saint Helena Island, prompting the local plantation owners to flee. The military administration of the island partitioned the old plantations, giving the land to the former slaves who lived there. The Penn School was established in 1862 by Laura Matilda Towne, an abolitionist missionary from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a school for the freed slaves, which was named for William Penn, Quaker champion for human liberty and founder of Pennsylvania. For many years the work was financed by Philadelphia Quaker abolitionists. Ellen Murray, a Quaker teacher, joined her in the work. Charlotte Forten, born into a wealthy free black family in Philadelphia, joined them as the school's first black teacher. The Brick Church was used as an early meeting, educational, and administrative space, and the school's first dedicated educational building was constructed in 1864, from prefabricated parts shipped from Pennsylvania. The school remained an active educational institution, under the leadership of Rossa Cooley and Grace House, for the island's population until 1948, when the state took over public education on the island. The institution then became the Penn Center, with directors including Howard Kester, Courtney Siceloff, John Gadson, Joe McDomick and Emory Campbell, and continued an educational mission for the island's preschoolers and adults, as well as maintaining a museum, cultural center, and conference meeting space.[2][5] With the creation of the Reconstruction Era National Monument (which in spring 2019 was elevated to National Park status), Brick Baptist Church is protected by a Park Service building easement and Darrah Hall, on the campus of the Penn Center, has been deeded over to the Park Service, as well as the adjacent parking area.
Penn Center played an important part in the civil rights movement, as one of the few places in the Jim Crow south where interracial groups could meet. Martin Luther King and his staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference held retreats here in the 1960s. Gantt Cottage, on the Penn Campus, was where Dr. King stayed. A Retreat Center on the water was planned as a safer place for Dr. King to stay, but it was not completed before his death in 1968. It was, however, used by his associates, Rev. Andrew Young and Rev. James Bevel, during the Charleston Hospital Strike of 1969. Notable South Carolina figures in the civil rights movement, including Septima Clark, James McBride Dabbs, Esau Jenkins, and James Clyburn all had connections to Penn Center
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