193-199 Jackson St
Charleston, SC, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Jackson Street Freedman's Cottages

Statement of Significance:

The Jackson Street cottages were built in the early 1890s to accommodate working class families during urban expansion onto Charleston’s northern peninsula. The retention of historic materials and setting, particularly the fact that the cottages remained clustered as a group, means that these cottages retain a higher degree of integrity than other examples of this architectural type in Charleston. The origin of the term “Freedmen’s Cottage” in common local parlance is unclear, but it would seem to derive from the belief that these modest dwellings had their origins as homes for recently emancipated slaves in the late nineteenth century. Current research, including on the tenants of the cottages on Jackson Street, does not necessarily support this idea. Instead, it suggests that these dwellings were a response to housing needs and land pressures as the Charleston population grew and expanded north on the Charleston peninsula in the late nineteenth century. They do not appear to have been inhabited only by African American residents, but rather were home to both white and black Charlestonians. The cottages are eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion An in social history. Their significance derives from the story that they talk about residential development in Charleston during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The collection of buildings is also eligible under Criterion C as an example of an architectural vernacular based on the Charleston single house, itself a form that represented Charlestonians’ adaptations to the spatial constraints and social customs of pre-Revolutionary Charleston. Likewise, the Freedman’s Cottage was an architectural expression of the needs of a different time and therefore offers a window into Charleston society at the end of the nineteenth century. The Jackson Street cottages are intact examples of the Freedman’s Cottage which remain in their original location. Though their current condition is poor, their neglect has served to leave them as among the more intact and least altered examples of this architectural form in the city.

Jackson Street Freedman's Cottages

The Jackson Street Freedman's Cottages are four small worker housing units at 193-199 Jackson Street in Charleston, South Carolina. They are simple frame structures with gabled roofs and front piazzas, built in the 1890s to meet demand for worker housing. The stylistic appellation "freedman's cottage" is based on the incorrect belief that these types of houses were originally commonly built for recently emancipated African Americans after the American Civil War. "Charleston cottage" is used to refer to the house.

These four cottages were recently rehabilitated by Cameron Glaws of Brown-Glaws Contractors. The renovation of the Jackson Street Freedman's Cottages started in April 2018 and was completed in December 2018. The buildings were rehabilitated according to the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. The rehabilitation of these historic buildings included the use of State and Federal Historic Tax Credits.

The cottages were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.