Penn Center
Explore Gullah History
The Penn Center is a 50-acre historic district including 25 buildings and structures on beautiful St. Helena Island, South Carolina. Surrounded by marsh and massive live oaks, the campus was home to one of the nation's first schools for formerly enslaved people. It is a significant African American institution rich with history. Check out Local Fun for more off-island adventures while enjoying your Fripp Island Vacation.
As you start your exploration, visit the Courtney P. Siceloff Welcome Center and Gift Shop, located with the York W. Bailey Museum. There you will find original artwork, books, music, and many other gifts.
Discover and celebrate the Sea Islands and Lowcountry African American culture known as Gullah Geechee. Tours are offered throughout the year and Penn Center hosts the annual Heritage Days Celebration each fall.
Penn Center
16 Penn Center Circle West
St. Helena Island, SC 29920
843-838-7105
#architecture #philadelphia #penncenter
🪵 Chop Wood Series | “Protect What They Can’t Rebuild.”
When you see the Gullah Geechee parade on St. Helena get scaled back after forty years… understand:
that’s not just a parade shrinking — that’s pressure being applied to a people who have held onto land, history, and freedom longer than this country has been comfortable with.
Culture doesn’t disappear overnight.
It disappears inch by inch.
Lane by lane.
Permit by permit.
Until elders have to fight for traditions their ancestors died to preserve.
Gullah Geechee people are the blueprint — Black landowners who kept their heritage intact through slavery, Jim Crow, hurricanes, and everything in between.
And now?
They’re facing what so many of our Southern communities are fighting:
gentrification disguised as “inconvenience,” “traffic,” and “development.”
Let me be clear:
Black culture is not a traffic problem.
Black history is not an obstruction.
And a parade that celebrates survival is not what’s slowing this country down.
What slows us down is the erasure.
The quiet displacement.
The policies that pretend to be neutral while bulldozing the very people who built the South.
This is why ownership matters.
Why land matters.
Why legacy matters.
Why I keep saying: equity is freedom.
The Gullah Geechee have been carrying that truth longer than most.
“As for God, His way is perfect.” — Psalm 18:30
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🙏🏿🪵🖤🤎😉🏊🏽♀️ℹ visiting🎣🇺🇸
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Brick Baptist Church’s heritage is woven into the rich tapestry of African American culture and history of the South Carolina Sea Islands. Built by slaves in 1855, Brick Baptist Church is the oldest church on St. Helena Island. The two-story building is constructed of mortar and bricks built around a spacious sanctuary. An open balcony was used for the slaves who stood during the services, always out of view of the white plantation owners who sat on the lower level.
In 1861, after the day of “big gun shoot”, the fall of Port Royal and the insurgence of the Yankees signaled the end of a brutal era in American history—the end of the Civil War and slavery. Later when the government sold abandoned plantations and land holdings to freed slaves, Brick Baptist Church was turned over to 8000 former slaves as their place of worship. There were more than 1000 members, with more being converted and baptized every three months.
The legacy of Brick Baptist Church is closely connected to historical Penn School, established as one of the first schools for freed slaves. In October 1862, Laura M. Towne and Ellen Murray, Penn School co-founders, opened their school at The Oaks Plantation with nine students, and later moved to Brick Baptist Church when enrollment increased to 132 students. Charlotte Forten, the first African-American teacher, taught at Penn School until 1864.
For more than a century and a half, Brick Baptist Church has endured and prospered through the word of God. The church has also served as a catalyst for change and a cornerstone of religious and family values. Brick Baptist Church is focused on becoming a teaching church, offering religious instruction for youth, establishing foreign missions, building community outreach, increasing membership, designing a scripturally-based vision, and endeavoring to spread the gospel throughout the world. #sthelena #penncenter
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HISTORY: Visited St Helena Island SC today. We visited the Penn Center - lots of Gullah history there. It was a school for freed slaves. This place grew over the years and became a trade school for negroes. This cottage is the Gantt Cottage. Martin Luther King Jr.spent time there from 1963-67. It was a retreat and a place for him to work. He wrote the "I have a dream" speech in this very cottage. It was awesome to stand on the porch where MLK Jr stood. #history #simpleliving #south #penncenter #freedom #historicalsites
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"Taken at #PennCenter. Not like it`s a new car & doesn`t want someone parking too close." Submitted by Anonymous. #jagoff #pittsburgh #badparking #parkingfail http://t.co/h6pAlVV34v
Three & Two Penn Center 🏢🏢••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
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Visit the York W. Bailey Museum to discover the 86-year history of Penn Center beginning in 1862 through the reconstruction era. Before the museum's dedication it was known as the Cope Industrial Shop, built to house classes in trades such as blacksmithing, basketry, cobbling, harness making and carpentry.
