Southeast Corner of Sumter and Senate Streets
Site of the Rollin Salon
Built early 1800s
James Gregg
1814?-1852?
Montague family
1852?-1972
Sen. George McIntyre
1872-1872
Katherine "Katie" Rollin
1872-1875
Demolished 1921
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Rollin sisters' residence, 1872. Image courtesy Library of Congress
From at least 1872 until 1875, but perhaps earlier, this residence served as the home of the Rollin sisters, founders of the first South Carolina chapter of the American Woman Suffrage Association. Charlotte, Katherine, and Louisa Rollin regularly hosted their oldest sister, Frances Rollin, and her husband, Representative William J. Whipper, at the "Rollin Salon," as well as many other Republican members of the Reconstruction era legislature. Their influence on South Carolina politics became nationally known due to the publication of two salacious articles in the New York Sun and New York Herald in 1871. Of the sisters, Charlotte "Lottie" Rollin was the most politically active, having argued as early as 1869 for suffrage in front of the South Carolina House of Representatives. To learn more about the Rollins, visit Columbia City of Women, a partnership between Historic Columbia and the Women's Rights Empowerment Network.
Watch SCETV's Documentary
The Rollin Sisters - Reconstruction through 1985
"During Reconstruction, despite their inability to vote or hold political office, the Rollin Sisters, were among the most influential people in South Carolina politics. Born to an aristocratic free Black family in Charleston, this program examines the sisters' efforts and those of their cohorts, whose dreams were once centerstage before being crushed by the fall of Reconstruction." - South Carolina ETV