Laura Towne and students
*The founding of the Penn Normal, Industrial, and Agricultural School in 1862 is celebrated on this date.
Penn Center School (as it was called) was the first school for Blacks on the Island of St. Helena, South Carolina. Laura Towne and Ellen Murray were its founders. Towne came to S. C. to work as a nurse, and in 1882, Murray arrived. The two of them began working on improving the island's educational situation.
They opened their first schoolhouse on the Oaks plantation and later relocated to the Brick Church, located in the center of St. Helena. In 1901, the school was chartered as the Penn Normal, Industrial, and Agricultural School. Named for the Quaker activist William Penn, it operated for eighty-six years as a Normal, Agricultural, and Industrial training school for Black people.
In the early 20th century, the courses sought ways to be more beneficial to the people on the island. They decided that Penn needed to offer various training programs for several crafts so the students attending could find work. Penn decided that their goals were most similar to the principles of Booker T. Washington and his push toward an Industrial-centered curriculum. They incorporated classes in carpentry, wheel writing, basket making, harness making, cobbling, and mechanics. The school also provided midwifery and teacher training.
The Penn Center met the needs of the Low Country community and its students. It offered several classes open to the community, such as quilting and weaving. It was also dedicated to children's public service work. It established the Farmers' Clubs and the Patrons' Leagues, and students training to be nurses taught classes in health across the island.
In the 1940s, the Penn Center experienced several setbacks that contributed to its ultimate decision to close its charter. Several storms and natural disasters destroyed that land in South Carolina. The boll weevil epidemic proved to be too much for many of the farm laborers to overcome. People could no longer be sure they could grow enough of a crop to provide for their families, let alone make a profit.
Millions of people gave up and went north. It was tough for Penn to maintain its enrollment during the Great Migration. It became almost impossible to keep subjects constant; they were losing funding, and it was becoming increasingly complex to stay open. In 1948, the Penn School Board decided that it would no longer operate as a private school but would instead serve the community, actively providing public education to the Sea Island people. The name was changed to Penn Community Services in 1950. Over the years, with continued philanthropic support, it served as a school, health agency, and cooperative society for the rural Black communities of the Sea Islands.
