NOTE: THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN CANCELLED IN ADVANCE OF HURRICANE DORIAN AND WILL BE RESCHEDULED.

The historic Penn Center on St. Helena Island hosts a holiday weekend of family activities including live music, history talks, an island bike ride and a community fish fry.  Founded in 1862, the Penn Center is the site of the first academic school for freed slaves. Today, it is one of the most significant African American historical and cultural institutions in existence and continues to be committed to the preservation of the Gullah Geechee culture. In addition to the York W. Bailey museum (above), the site itself is available for tours year-round and is comprised of nineteen buildings related to and used by the Penn School, including Brick Church and Darrah Hall, one of the oldest buildings on St. Helena Island.  It also hosts old burial grounds, Gantt Cottage (where Martin Luther King Jr. lodged), a Nature Trail, Chowan Creek and acres of pines, native flora and fauna.