Mount Pleasant was site of first Black orphanage in South Carolina (2024)

MOUNT PLEASANT — The Old Village is home to several historic sites important to town, though one site holds significance to the entire Palmetto State.

On the corner of Bennett and Venning streets sits the site of South Carolina's first Black orphanage. The Mount Pleasant Home for Destitute Children was founded by Abby David Munro, a Philadelphia Quaker.

On a stormy winter day in 1881, a child appeared at Munro's doorstep, according to a promotional pamphlet for the orphanage. An 8-year-old girl begged for food and a place to stay. She was battered, bruised and all on her own.

“Here was a child who had no home, no parents, no friends in the wide world. She had been wandering here and there, picking up a living as best she could for two years since her mother’s death,” Munro wrote in 1883. “What did this child need? A home.”

The interaction spurred Munro, a member of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, to establish an orphanage in Mount Pleasant.

Thus, Munro opened the Mount Pleasant Home for Destitute Children in 1883, the first orphanage for Black children in South Carolina. The abolition society was a source of funds for institutions and organizations that supported the education of Black children.

In her writings, Munro detailed the day-to-day lives of the children who lived in the home. The orphanage housed up to 25 children at a time.

Younger children were expected to do household chores like cooking, sewing and mending. Older children attended school and made “commendable progress” in their studies, according to Munro’s journal entries preserved in the University of South Carolina’s digital archive.

Room and board cost a dollar per week, roughly $30 in 2024 dollars. Clothing for the children was donated by churches, though she wrote that there was very little material support from local groups.

Instead, financial supportcame primarily from northern organizations, like the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.

"We find, however, as it is becoming more and more known in the community, prejudice is wearing away, and the people even take pride in having a true benevolent institution in their community," Munro wrote.

For 37 years Munro also served as the principal for the Laing School established in 1866 to serve young Black children in Mount Pleasant.

“Abby Munro believed it was her Christian duty to help the poor children around the Old Village,” Kate Miller, a senior planner and coordinator for the town’s Historical Commission, said. “The close relationship between the Mount Pleasant Home of Destitute Children and the Laing School emphasized the connection between education and social welfare.”

Less than 10 years later, Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston opened its doors. The Reverend Daniel Jenkins founded the orphanage that housed hundreds of Black children in the city. The orphanage, now the Jenkins Institute, still functions today as a group home.

The Mount Pleasant Home for Destitute Children had a shorter life.

Munro transferred ownership of the orphanage to the Pennsylvania Abolition Society in 1911, and the home burned down in 1920. But its benefactors continued to support Black children in Mount Pleasant through the Laing School until 1940 when the school was deeded to the public school district.

The school still operates today as Laing Middle School of Science and Technology, a nationally recognized STEM school.

Though all that remains of the Mount Pleasant Home for Destitute Children is a historical marker on the site, Munro and the impact of the abolition society live on in the Laing School.