Cultural Landscape Report: Brick Church, Reconstruction Era National Historical Park
WLA Studio. 2023. Cultural Landscape Report: Brick Church, Reconstruction Era National Historical Park. Cultural Landscape Report. National Park Service. Atlanta, Georgia
This Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) is for the Brick Church unit of Reconstruction Era National Historical Park. Brick Baptist Church is a part of the Penn Center Historic District. Penn Center, formerly Penn School, is the African American educational institution that arose during the early years of the Civil War on Union-occupied St. Helena Island. Brick Church served as the first classroom building for what would soon become Penn School. The Pennsylvania Freedmen’s Association paid for and shipped the school building to St. Helena Island and is the source of the name for the school. This CLR aims to synthesize our understanding of the cultural landscape of the site and offer recommendations to guide its future use. The site history section of this report organizes the site into periods of development. These periods reflect both broad themes in regional history as well as specific events related to the ownership of the project site. Brick Church is a contributing resource to the Penn Center Historic District (period of significance of 1850-1924). This CLR applies an 1855-1924 period of significance to the site, reflecting the church’s date of construction. Since the establishment of Reconstruction Era National Historical Park in 2017, the National Park Service has been preparing reports to inform the site’s continuing management and maintenance. This CLR is one of the first cultural landscape-specific reports produced for the park. Other units within Reconstruction Era National Historical Park are the Old Beaufort Firehouse, Camp Saxton, and Darrah Hall.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- WLA Studio
- Date of Issue
- 2023-09
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- REER , SER
- Keywords
- African American history, architecture, cemetery, civil rights, education, Greek Revival, National Historic Landmark, Penn Center Historic District, Penn School, politics, Port Royal Experiment, Reconstruction, religion, social/humanitarian