Northwest Corner of Lincoln and Hampton Streets
Site of First Howard School
By 1869, Columbia featured the first and what would remain for another 50 years the only public school for African Americans. Partially funded by the Freedmen’s Bureau and named for the Bureau’s first commissioner, Oliver O. Howard, the two-story, wood-framed building initially accommodated students of all grades.
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![Howard School]()
Howard School. Image courtesy Warner Montgomery
After the founding of Booker T. Washington School in 1916, Howard became a grammar school for grades K-8. Nathaniel J. Frederick served as the institution’s principal for almost 20 years before becoming the city’s only licensed African American lawyer in 1913. This building closed in 1924 after a new Howard School was built a few blocks away.