Skip to main content

Historic Columbia's administrative offices will be closed on Monday, May 29, 2023 for Memorial Day.

Historic Columbia's administrative offices, gardens, and Gift Shop will close at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, June 7. All afternoon tours are cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience. 

Menu Close Menu

Historic Columbia

Donate
  • FAQs
Upcoming Events

Navigation

  • Tours
    • House Tours
      • Robert Mills House and Gardens
      • Hampton-Preston Mansion and Gardens
      • Mann-Simons Site
      • The Museum of the Reconstruction Era
      • Modjeska Monteith Simkins House
      • Hours and Pricing
    • Garden Tours
      • Garden Database
    • Offsite Tours
      • Walking Tours
    • African American History Tours
    • Online Tours
  • Education
    • Field Trips
      • House Tours
    • Traveling Trunk
    • Summer Camp
    • Adult Education
  • Preservation
    • Current Projects and Initiatives
      • Bull Street Campus 
      • Columbia's Green Book Sites
      • Veterans Administration Regional Office
      • Women’s Club of Columbia
    • Preservation Awards
    • Resources for the Public
      • For Property Owners
      • For Neighborhoods
      • Take Action!
    • LGBTQ Columbia
    • Building Richland County
  • Support
    • Corporate Support
    • Donate
    • Membership
      • Palladium
    • Volunteer
    • Partners and Donors
  • Rent a Venue
    • Gardens of the Hampton-Preston Mansion
    • Seibels House and Garden
    • Robert Mills Carriage House and Gardens
    • Gardens of the Woodrow Wilson Family Home
    • Weddings
    • Photoshoots
    • Recommended Vendors
    • Contact Us
  • About
    • Blog
    • Board Members
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
    • Gift Shop at Robert Mills
      • Online Store
    • Local History
      • Columbia Jewish Heritage Initiative
    • Newsletter
    • Staff Directory

Donate

2600 Barhamville Road

W.A. Perry Middle School

W.A. Perry Junior High School opened in 1956 for African American seventh and eighth graders. Designed by prominent city architects Lafaye, Faire, and Lafaye, the school’s distinctly mid-century modern design earned a full page spread in The State. At the time of its opening, it was heralded as one of Columbia’s three “campus style” schools, characterized by a layout of isolated units intended to maximize the use of space. The original units consisted of an administrative center, a classroom building, and a library. The interior was also carefully conceived, designed to require minimum maintenance and to emphasize natural lighting through skylights and breeze windows. The school building incorporated modern 1950s equipment. Refrigerators, electric stoves, and washing machines occupied the home economics room, and classroom chairs and desks were shaped specifically for comfort and healthy posture.

  • W.A. Perry Middle School

    W.A. Perry Middle School, 2018. Historic Columbia collection

  • WA Perry News

    The opening of W.A. Perry Junior High School earned a full page spread in Columbia's The State, July 20, 1956.

The school was named for William A. Perry, the first African American principal in the city of Columbia to earn a master’s degree. Perry originally hailed from North Carolina and earned degrees from Yale and Harvard, and then began a teaching career at a high school in Brunswick, Georgia, before coming to Columbia where he served as principal of Waverly School. In conjunction with his position at Waverly, Perry acted as director of student teaching and observation at Allen University. Perry was active in his parish at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Columbia, serving as vestryman, organist, Bible class teacher and choir director, until his death in 1938.

Site of South Carolina Female Collegiate Institute

Also known as the Barhamville Collegiate Institute for Women or Barhamville Academy, this prestigious women’s school was founded in 1828 by Dr. Elias Marks, a wealthy physician and Charleston native. Born into a Jewish family, Dr. Marks was influenced by his childhood nurse, an African American Methodist woman, and converted to Christianity at a young age. He founded his school for women as a Methodist institution and named it for his recently deceased wife, Jane Barham.

  • Lithograph of the South Carolina Female Collegiate Institute.

    Lithograph of the South Carolina Female Collegiate Institute. Historic Columbia collection

By the 1850s, over one hundred students were enrolled, many from outside of South Carolina. The young women generally came out of the antebellum planter class and prominent families. Some notable students included Anna Calhoun, daughter of John C. Calhoun; Ann Pamela Cunningham, founder of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association; and Martha Bulloch, mother of Theodore Roosevelt. Courses for the young women included mathematics, chemistry, history, drawing, modern languages, music and dance. The campus also included a chapel for weekly services to help round out a curriculum that fostered intellectual, moral and physical well-being. This holistic approach was intended to establish students as well-rounded individuals who could carry out the duties of Southern gentlewomen during the antebellum period.(1)

The school operated until 1865, and in 1866, the property went up for sale. Three years later, in February of 1869, the campus burned down. No extant structure of it remains. Today, an historical marker at the intersection of Two Notch Road and Ogden Street identifies part of the plot of land where the South Carolina Female Collegiate Institute once stood.

(1) Isabella M.E. Blandin. History of Higher Education of Women in the South Prior to 1860 (New York and Washington: The Neale Publishing Company, 1909). 

34.0322504, -81.0157733

Newsletter Signup

newsletter signup

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter for events, news, and updates from Historic Columbia!

  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Flickr
Historic Columbia

© 2023 Historic Columbia

Administrative Offices
1601 Richland Street
Columbia, SC 29201

Tours
All historic house and garden tours start at the Gift Shop at Robert Mills.
1616 Blanding Street
Columbia, SC 29201

Questions? Call (803) 252-7742.

Website by Cyberwoven