Penn Center (Saint Helena Island, South Carolina) facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Significant dates

Penn School Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District

Brick Baptist Church
Location in South Carolina Show map of South Carolina Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Nearest city	St. Helena Island, South Carolina
Area	47 acres (19 ha)
Built	1855
NRHP reference No.	74001824
Added to NRHP	September 9, 1974
Designated NHLD	December 2, 1974

The Penn Center, once known as the Penn School, is a special place for African-American culture and learning. It's located in the Corners Community on Saint Helena Island, South Carolina.

This center was started in 1862 by teachers from Pennsylvania. It was the very first school in the Southern United States created specifically to educate African-Americans. The Penn School helped Gullah people who had been enslaved and were now free after plantation owners left the island. Today, the Penn Center still works to educate and support the community.

In 1974, the campus was named a National Historic Landmark District. This means it's a very important historical site. Two buildings on campus, Darrah Hall and the Brick Baptist Church, became part of the Reconstruction Era National Monument in 2017. By 2019, it was part of the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park, along with Fort Sumter.

Where is the Penn Center?
History of the Penn Center
Buildings at Penn Center
Images for kids
See also

Where is the Penn Center?

The Penn Center is about one mile south of Frogmore. You can find it on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The campus is about 47 acres (19 hectares) and is split by the road.

It has many old buildings that were used when it was a school. These include classrooms, places where students and teachers lived, and offices. The oldest building is the Brick Church, built in 1855 by the island's plantation owners. Saint Helena is one of the "sea islands," a group of about 100 islands off the southeastern United States. Being isolated helped the unique Gullah/Geechee culture grow here. Places like the Penn Center help keep this culture alive.

History of the Penn Center

Starting During the Civil War

In 1861, the American Civil War began. After the first shots at Fort Sumter, soldiers from the Union Army took control of St. Helena Island. This made the local plantation owners leave. Union General Thomas W. Sherman started something called the Port Royal Experiment. The idea was to create hospitals and schools for formerly enslaved people. This would help them get an education, learn skills, and even buy land. The military divided the old plantations and gave land to the formerly enslaved people who lived there.

The Penn School opened in 1862. It was started by Laura Matilda Towne for formerly enslaved people on St. Helena Island and nearby areas. Laura Towne was from Massachusetts and was part of the movement to end slavery. She named the school after William Penn, a Quaker who believed in freedom for everyone. For many years, people who wanted to end slavery in Philadelphia helped pay for the school.

Ellen Murray, another Quaker teacher, joined Laura Towne in 1862. Charlotte Forten, a free Black woman from Philadelphia, was the school's first Black teacher. She taught there until 1864. The Brick Church was used for early meetings, classes, and offices. In 1864, the first building made just for teaching was put together. Its parts were shipped from Pennsylvania. A Black resident of St. Helena donated the land for this new schoolhouse.

Growing in the Late 1800s

After the Penn School was set up and the Civil War ended, Laura Towne and Ellen Murray started their long-term plans. They believed education was key for formerly enslaved people to improve their lives. They began teaching a traditional school curriculum, like what was taught in the northern states. This included focusing on English instead of the Gullah dialect, along with math and science. Students used books like The Second Reader of the School and Family Series and The Common School Speller. The school became well-known and attracted students from other Sea Islands, some traveling far to get an education.

In the 1870s, less money came from the North to support Penn School. Laura Towne used her business skills to handle these money problems. During tough financial times, Towne and Murray didn't take a salary from the school. Their families, who were wealthy in the North, continued to support them. Laura Towne also received money after her brother's death in 1875.

Towne and Murray wanted to keep the cycle of education going. So, they started a program to train teachers. The first group of teachers trained from 1868 to 1870. Several of these new teachers were hired by South Carolina to work in public schools.

Changes in the Early 1900s

In the late 1800s, the Penn School got a new board of trustees, mostly wealthy people from the North. When Laura Towne passed away in 1901, Ellen Murray took over many of her duties until she died in 1908. Hollis Burke Frissell, a trustee, looked for Towne's replacement.

Eventually, Rossa Belle Cooley (1872–1949) was chosen to lead the school. Grace Bigelow House (1877–1965) became the Vice Principal in 1904. Cooley and House agreed that English was important, but they also wanted to focus more on what the community needed. They started a year-long school schedule. Some students took high school classes and went on to further education.

In 1948, the state of South Carolina took over the school. Three years later, in 1951, the Penn School became the Penn Center. It continued its mission to educate the island's people. The center's leaders, including Howard Kester, Courtney Siceloff, John Gadson, Joe McDomick, and Emory Campbell, also managed a museum, a cultural center, and a place for meetings.

Role in the Civil Rights Movement

From 1950 to the 1970s, the Penn Campus hosted conferences for midwives. At that time, many babies in South Carolina were delivered by midwives.

The Penn Center was one of the few places in the South where Black and white people could meet together during the time of Jim Crow laws. This made it very important for the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his team from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference held meetings and planning sessions here in the 1960s. Dr. King often stayed at Gantt Cottage on the campus. A new Retreat Center was planned by the water to be a safer place for Dr. King, but it wasn't finished before he passed away in 1968. However, his friends, like Rev. Andrew Young and Rev. James Bevel, used it during the Charleston Hospital Strike in 1969. Important South Carolina civil rights leaders, including Septima Clark, James McBride Dabbs, Esau Jenkins, and James Clyburn, all had connections to the Penn Center.

Penn Center Today

Today, the Penn Center Campus continues to preserve history and provide education. The Brick Baptist Church and Darrah Hall are now protected by the National Park Service as part of the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park.

In 2001, the Sea Island Reconstruction Heritage Partnership began. This group includes cities and counties in the area, along with the University of South Carolina Beaufort. Their goal is to protect the history of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Civil Rights Movement in the Lowcountry region.

In 2024, the Penn Center was added to the 'Unesco Network of Places of History and Memory'. This network helps provide resources to support the Center's work in preserving history and educating people.

Buildings at Penn Center

Brick Baptist Church (1855) (32°23′23″N 80°34′34″W / 32.389754917802804°N 80.57606867793497°W (Brick Baptist Church)): This church is next to Penn's Campus and has always been very important to its history. It held classes when Penn School first started.
Penn Center Bell Tower (1865): Located near the Benezet House, this tower once held a brass bell like the Liberty Bell. The bell is now in the Penn Center's museum.
Darrah Hall (1882): This is the oldest building on Penn Center's campus. It has been a community meeting place for over 100 years.
Alden Sales House (1900): Students built this house. It has been used as a thrift shop and a place for milk.
Hampton House (Penn Center) (1904) (32°23′19″N 80°34′33″W / 32.388710°N 80.575835°W / 32.388710; -80.575835 (Hampton House)): This building was used for teachers and guests to live on campus.
Benezet House (1905) (32°23′18″N 80°34′31″W / 32.388332°N 80.575288°W / 32.388332; -80.575288 (Benezet House)): Female teachers and students lived here. It was also where they learned home economics.
Cedar Cottage (1907): Built for single female teachers and nurse offices. It's named after the many cedar trees on St. Helena Island.
Jasmine Cottage (1911): Penn's carpentry students built this cottage for teachers to live in.
Cope Industrial Shop (1912) (32°23′16″N 80°34′36″W / 32.387897°N 80.576541°W / 32.387897; -80.576541 (York W. Bailey Museum)): This building held classes for making harnesses, fixing wheels, blacksmithing, basket weaving, carpentry, and shoe repair. Today, it's the Penn Center's York W. Bailey Museum.
Emory S. Campbell Dining Hall (1917) (32°23′19″N 80°34′31″W / 32.388493°N 80.575187°W / 32.388493; -80.575187 (Emory S. Campbell Dining Hall)): First used as a laundry, this dining hall can now hold up to 100 people. It serves local Gullah-style foods to guests.
Green Learning Center Rosenwald School (1920s): This learning center is used for a daycare program called PACE (Program for Academic and Cultural Enrichment).
Pine Grove Cottage (1921): Students built this as housing for the school's superintendent. Today, it houses guests of Penn Center.
Lathers Memorial Dormitory (1922): This was a memorial to Agnes Lathers, an early teacher. It was a dorm for male students and teachers. Now, it's used for administrative offices.
Frissell Community House (1925) (32°23′22″N 80°34′36″W / 32.389411°N 80.576675°W / 32.389411; -80.576675 (Frissell Community House)): Built where the first Penn Center schoolhouse stood. Frissell has always been a community gathering place. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference even used it for training and strategy meetings.
Butler Building (Penn Center) (1931): Penn students built this. It was used for home economics, graduate meetings, a boys' clubhouse, exhibits, and the band room.
Arnett House (1937): This house was for students and teachers from South Carolina State University who worked in county schools. It's now used for conference guests.
The Potato House (1938): This building was used to store sweet potatoes for curing. Now, it's fenced off and used for storing farm equipment.
Gantt Cottage (1940): Penn students built this new Gantt Cottage. In the 1960s, Martin Luther King, Jr. stayed here when he visited Penn Center for meetings. He also wrote parts of his "I Have A Dream" speech here.
Orchard Cottage (1942): Built as a home for teachers.
The Cannery (Penn Center) (1946): Originally a dairy barn, this building has been used for canning tomatoes and processing Conch.
Retreat House and Dock (1968): Built the year Martin Luther King, Jr. passed away. This house was planned as a more peaceful place for his meetings than the smaller Gantt Cottage.