Black Harleston Village
Well into the twentieth century, Harleston Village was a neighborhood where both Black and white residents lived. Bounded by Calhoun Street to the north, King Street to the east, Broad Street to the south, and the Ashley River to the west, this neighborhood was a vibrant civic, cultural, and business center for Black Charlestonians. The Black Harleston Village Tour highlights prominent members of the Black Harleston Village community as well as its businesses, civic organizations, churches, and schools, primarily during the twentieth century.
H. A. DeCosta Company
Harleston Village Historical Renovations
The H. A. DeCosta Company was a thriving, Black-owned architecture and construction business three generations in the making. Benjamin DeCosta first started the business in 1899, and, in 1919, Herbert DeCosta Sr., Benjamin’s son, started the H. A. DeCosta Company. Herbert A. DeCosta Jr., was born in Charleston in 1923 and, from age twelve, worked alongside his father, Herbert DeCosta Sr.
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Old Bethel United Methodist Church, 222 Calhoun Street
A physical reminder of a historic relationship
Old Bethel United Methodist Church is the third oldest existing church building in Charleston, and it is the only Black Methodist Church that originated in the Antebellum period.
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Buchanan Barber College (Laura E. Mack Buchanan Sims), 87 Coming Street
Laura E. Mack Buchanan Sims was a woman who dedicated her life and career to cosmetology, education, and her community. Not many at the College may know of Mrs. Sims, but every day they walk by three sites related to Laura Sims, including her home at 188 Calhoun Street and the first institute…
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Black Burial Sites and Memorials on Rivers Green
Commemorating Black Charlestonians on C of C's campus
Over two centuries ago, free people of color buried their dead near this spot. In 2008, the College installed this memorial on Rivers Green, outside Addlestone Library. Nearby, another marker commemorates a beloved librarian and member of Emanuel AME church.
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Brown Fellowship Society Cemetery, 52 Pitt Street
The Brown Fellowship Society, founded November 1st, 1790 by Charleston’s community of elite free persons of color, is more than two centuries old. This Society was once central to the African American community of Charleston, and members maintained a cemetery next to their meeting hall on Pitt…
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57 Coming Street
Cornerstone of a Thriving Neighborhood
In 1925 a young entrepreneurial couple, Edward Leon Guenveur Sr. and Lauretta Goodall-Guenveur, purchased a home on Coming Street in the midst of a thriving African American community, adjacent to the College of Charleston. The living descendants recall how the five siblings had to walk around the perimeter of the College to get to the grocer, instead of simply cutting directly through the…
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Mt. Zion AME Church, 5 Glebe Street
An example of bridging the gap for the rest of the country
The building at 5 Glebe Street was designed by Edward C. Jones and constructed between 1847 and 1848. Jones was influenced by the simplified classicism seen in English churches of the same period. There are only a few church buildings in Charleston built in this style.
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Septima P. Clark Birthplace, 105 Wentworth
At 105 Wentworth Street stands College of Charleston’s Kappa Sigma Fraternity house. Beyond the surface of a residential home for the College’s frat life, this property holds a special part of Charleston’s Black history. On May 3rd, 1898, Septima Poinsette (she later became Clark when she married Nerie Clark in 1920) was born on this site.
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Jenkins Orphanage and Jenkins Orphanage Band, 20 Franklin Street
The Jenkins Orphanage, currently known as the Jenkins Institute for Children, was established in 1891 by Rev. Daniel Joseph Jenkins in Charleston, South Carolina.
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Avery Research Center
A community hub providing education and advocacy
To understand the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, it is important to consider its rich history. Founded in 1865 as the Avery Normal Institute, this community hub provided education and advocacy for the growing Charleston African American community and trained Blacks…
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