PENN CENTER

THE First School in the South for Formerly Enslaved West Africans

Penn Center commissioned Innova Design Group, which includes Landmark Preservation LLC (Landmark), to conduct a thorough conditions assessment for six buildings located on their campus on St. Helena Island in South Carolina. Those six buildings are: Orchard Cottage (1942), Gantt Cottage (1940), Retreat House (1968), Jasmine Cottage (1911), Arnett House (1937), and Cedar House (1907). The six buildings are part of a larger campus of the former Penn School, one of the nation’s first schools and the first school in the south for formerly enslaved people. It is one of the most significant African American institutions in existence today as a crucial, tangible piece of the local and national story of the American experience during and since the Reconstruction era. The Penn School National Historic Landmark District is the only African American National Historic Landmark District in South Carolina.

The purpose of the assessment was to identify building and site deficiencies, and to make recommendations for future treatment. It focused not on restoring the buildings to a period of significance or to a particular time period but on stabilizing and rehabilitating the structures to become functional buildings on campus once again.

Countless hours of architectural study and archival research culminated in a phase one master plan that included:

  • Architectural Styles Evaluation (Innova Architecture)

  • Landscape Assessment and Recommendations for each individual building and for the entire campus (Surculus Design)

  • Existing and Proposed Architectural Floor Plan Drawings (Innova Architecture)

  • Historic Evaluation for each building (History and Photographs)

  • Comprehensive Conditions Assessment and Recommendations

  • MEP Assessment and Recommendations (Constantine Engineering Associates LLC)

  • Structural Assessment and Recommendations (Ohmega Group)

  • Hazardous Materials Assessment and Recommendations (F&ME Consultants Inc)

  • Preservation and Rehabilitation Budget including Budget Prioritization

Project Team Members included: Innova Architecture, Surculus Design, Constantine Engineering Associates LLC, Ohmega Group and F&ME Consultants Inc.