Officials plan to secure a key Beaufort Co. historic site. Some feel shut out

Plans to secure a national historic site in northern Beaufort County have been met with opposition by some in the community who say they have always enjoyed free access to the grounds.

Penn Center officials plan to build a 5-foot, wrought-iron gated fence fronting its campus on each side of Martin Luther King Drive on St. Helena Island. The fence would include gates at the main entrance for vehicles and another at a bus entrance, Penn Center director Rodell Lawrence said Friday.

Another gate would allow people to exit and cross from one side of the road to another. The gates would open during the day and otherwise be locked with electronic key access except in the case of special events.

Lawrence and members of the Penn Center board who voted to approve the project believe the fence is necessary to ensure the safety of children on the campus for summer, after-school and day care programs and in the wake of incidents of on-campus thefts..

"That's just the first step in providing security," board C hairman Marion Burns said. "We're going to put in cameras and anything else we feel is necessary to provide security and safety."

Penn Center is the site of one of the first schools for newly freed African-Americans during the Civil War and served as a retreat for Martin Luther King Jr. Darrah Hall on the center's campus was recently named as a national monument of the Reconstruction Era.

The St. Helena community's response has been largely opposed to the idea of the fence, said St. Helena native and Beaufort County Council member York Glover.

Glover said he grew up playing basketball in Darrah Hall and that access was never an issue. He described St. Helena as a community where paths connect families' property and trespassing is rarely a consideration.

A county comprehensive plan calls for no gated communities on St. Helena, Glover said, adding that Penn Center would meet the literal definition if a fence goes up, despite not being a typical gated residential community.

"Whether it is tomorrow or somewhere down the line, a tomorrow will come where those fences will probably come down," Glover said, repeating a sentiment he said he shared with Penn Center officials. "It would be hard pressed for the community to be in acceptance of that fence forever."

A group plans to meet in a public protest of the fence at 10 a.m. June 30, St. Helena resident William Smith said. They plan to walk from St. Helena Elementary School to the intersection of Sea Island Parkway and Martin Luther King.

Smith was part of a group that met with a Penn Center community relations official to share concerns. He said there are people who live behind Penn Center who can access their homes only through its roads.

"To say you want to be a good neighbor in the community, you're not showing that by not listening to what people in the community are saying," Smith said.

Lawrence rejects the idea of Penn Center as a gated community, noting the gates would be open during the day. He said that if someone had a special need, such as to visit a gravesite after hours, they would be provided access.

He said in addition to its summer children's programs, Penn Center has about 45 children in its day care throughout the year and also in after-school programs. Vehicles often speed on Martin Luther King Drive, which starts at Sea Island Parkway running toward Lands End, he said.

Lawrence said he recently wrote state transportation officials to advocate for crosswalks and signs to slow traffic in the area.

"We have 250 kids out there this summer," he said. "If a kid runs out in the road, we've got a disaster out here."

Lawrence declined to give a specific date the fence would be built out of concern people would show up to obstruct the work. But he said the fence will be installed in the coming weeks and that appropriate local and federal authorities had signed off.

The Penn Center board met earlier this month and reaffirmed its decision to install the fence, Burns said.

This story was originally published June 15, 2018 at 4:24 PM with the headline "Officials plan to secure a key Beaufort Co. historic site. Some feel shut out."