Recently, the Preservation Society of Charleston , Coastal Conservation League + Historic Charleston Foundation received a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to nominate Mount Pleasant’s Phillips Community to the National Register of Historic Places .
Phillips Community is one of the last remaining historic Black settlement communities in the region, and is currently threatened by Charleston County’s Alternate 1 proposal to widen Highway 41 directly through the historic + residential area.
Phillips Community historical marker | Photo by Harriet Richardson, provided by the Preservation Society of Charleston
The community was established by freedmen in 1878 + was named after Phillips Plantation . The former slaves of Laurel Hill, Parker Island + Boone Hall Plantations purchased 10 acre parcels of land where they settled to become farmers, tradesmen, businessmen + landowners. The community was independent and self-sustaining, rooted in Gullah traditions, values and history.
Today, many of its residents are descendants of the original settlers + live according to the same patterns and values.
Current residence in Phillips Community | Photo by Brockington and Associates, provided by the Preservation Society of Charleston
The $5,000 grant will support the nonprofit partnership’s efforts to produce a National Register Historic District nomination for Phillips Community that will protect the area and its residents from the disturbance + destruction that would come with the widening of Highway 41.
Read more on what this project might mean for the community here
+ keep up with its preservation efforts here
.