Modjeska Monteith Simkins House
Encyclopedia
The Modjeska Monteith Simkins House is a historic place of the civil rights movement. The house, which was owned by Modjeska Monteith Simkins
, is located at 2025 Marion Street in Columbia, South Carolina
. On March 25, 1994, it was named to the National Register of Historic Places
.
The house is a modest, -story, wooden frame house with an L-shaped plan, side-gabled roof, and shed-roof front porch. The house has its original wooden weatherboard siding. The house was originally built on clay brick piers, but the open spaces were later filled with clay brick. The roof is covered with asphalt composition shingles. There are three interior brick chimneys with corbelling. The upper half-story is for storage.
The windows appear to be original. The front of the house has two double-hung
, six-over-six, windows on each side of the door. The front wood-paneled door has a transom
and sidelights. The porch extends over the door and two windows. The porch has chamfered posts and turned baluster
railings. The steps have cast iron railings that have replaced the original wooden railing.
The interior has a center hall plan with a rear extension kitchen. The front of the house has a living room and a bedroom. There are two additional bedrooms at the back. Each of these four rooms has a fireplace. The original floor was replaced with wooden pine floorboards by Andrew Simkins.
Other modifications to the house include a shed-roof bathroom at the rear built in the mid-twentieth century. Iron bars have been placed over the windows in the 1960s.
There is a one-story, three-room building of similar construction at the rear of the property that was probably built around the same time as the main house. This was probably used as a guest house for visiting civil rights workers.
, it is likely constructed c. 1900. The Simkins family moved into the house in 1932.
After Modejska Simkins death in 1992, the house was vacant for a period. In 1995, the Collaborative for Community Trust, which is a Columbia non-profit organization addressing social change, raised US$60,000 towards purchasing the house. They won a stabilization grant from the South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. They also received funds from the City of Columbia for the conversion of the house into a museum about Simkins and her work and for a headquarters for their organization. Additional support came from the National Trust for Historic Preservation
, the Historic Charleston Foundation, the Historic Columbia Foundation, and the Columbia Housing Authority.
The house is currently managed by the Historic Community Foundation. The house is not routinely open for tours but group visits and meeting space may be arranged.
, which became part of the ground-breaking Brown v. Board of Education
decision that overturned previous court decisions allowing separate public schools for children of different races
. Thurgood Marshall
stayed here when the local hotels did not allow African-Americans to register.
A historic marker has been erected at the Modeska Monteith Simkins House as one of those honoring African American historic sites in Columbia.
Modjeska Monteith Simkins
Modjeska Monteith Simkins was an important leader of African American public health reform, social reform and the civil rights movement in South Carolina.-Life:...
, is located at 2025 Marion Street in Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
. On March 25, 1994, it was named to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Architecture
The house is on a 50 ft (15 m) by 172 ft (52 m) lot on the west side of Marion Street between Elmwood Avenue and Calhoun Street. It is located nearly one block north of the Columbia Historic District II.The house is a modest, -story, wooden frame house with an L-shaped plan, side-gabled roof, and shed-roof front porch. The house has its original wooden weatherboard siding. The house was originally built on clay brick piers, but the open spaces were later filled with clay brick. The roof is covered with asphalt composition shingles. There are three interior brick chimneys with corbelling. The upper half-story is for storage.
The windows appear to be original. The front of the house has two double-hung
Sash window
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels or "sashes" that form a frame to hold panes of glass, which are often separated from other panes by narrow muntins...
, six-over-six, windows on each side of the door. The front wood-paneled door has a transom
Transom (architectural)
In architecture, a transom is the term given to a transverse beam or bar in a frame, or to the crosspiece separating a door or the like from a window or fanlight above it. Transom is also the customary U.S. word used for a transom light, the window over this crosspiece...
and sidelights. The porch extends over the door and two windows. The porch has chamfered posts and turned baluster
Baluster
A baluster is a moulded shaft, square or of lathe-turned form, one of various forms of spindle in woodwork, made of stone or wood and sometimes of metal, standing on a unifying footing, and supporting the coping of a parapet or the handrail of a staircase. Multiplied in this way, they form a...
railings. The steps have cast iron railings that have replaced the original wooden railing.
The interior has a center hall plan with a rear extension kitchen. The front of the house has a living room and a bedroom. There are two additional bedrooms at the back. Each of these four rooms has a fireplace. The original floor was replaced with wooden pine floorboards by Andrew Simkins.
Other modifications to the house include a shed-roof bathroom at the rear built in the mid-twentieth century. Iron bars have been placed over the windows in the 1960s.
There is a one-story, three-room building of similar construction at the rear of the property that was probably built around the same time as the main house. This was probably used as a guest house for visiting civil rights workers.
History
Although an oral tradition indicates that the house was built before the Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, it is likely constructed c. 1900. The Simkins family moved into the house in 1932.
After Modejska Simkins death in 1992, the house was vacant for a period. In 1995, the Collaborative for Community Trust, which is a Columbia non-profit organization addressing social change, raised US$60,000 towards purchasing the house. They won a stabilization grant from the South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. They also received funds from the City of Columbia for the conversion of the house into a museum about Simkins and her work and for a headquarters for their organization. Additional support came from the National Trust for Historic Preservation
National Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is an American member-supported organization that was founded in 1949 by congressional charter to support preservation of historic buildings and neighborhoods through a range of programs and activities, including the publication of Preservation...
, the Historic Charleston Foundation, the Historic Columbia Foundation, and the Columbia Housing Authority.
The house is currently managed by the Historic Community Foundation. The house is not routinely open for tours but group visits and meeting space may be arranged.
Significance
The house was the residence, private office of Modjeska Simkins, and guest accommodations for visiting civil rights workers. Her most important contribution was probably her work on Briggs v. ElliottBriggs v. Elliott
Briggs et al. v. Elliott et al., , commonly Briggs v. Elliott, was the first of the five cases combined into Brown v. Board of Education , the famous case in which the U.S. Supreme Court officially overturned racial segregation in U.S. public schools...
, which became part of the ground-breaking Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
decision that overturned previous court decisions allowing separate public schools for children of different races
Race in the United States
The United States is a racially diverse country. Modern issues of "race", as well as its impact in the political and economic development of the nation, have been examined by numerous historians and researchers across a variety of academic disciplines....
. Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...
stayed here when the local hotels did not allow African-Americans to register.
A historic marker has been erected at the Modeska Monteith Simkins House as one of those honoring African American historic sites in Columbia.