Mann-Simons Cottage

Built before 1850 and altered and added to throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this cottage was the home of Celia Mann and her husband Ben Delane, who were among the few free blacks living in Columbia in the two decades before the Civil War. Born enslaved in Charleston, Mann earned or bought her freedom in the 1840s and moved to Columbia, where she worked as a midwife. First Calvary, Second Calvary, and Zion Baptist churches trace their origins to services held in the basement of the house. After Mann's death, her daughter Agnes Jackson lived here, and descendants of Agnes Jackson's second husband Bill Simons owned the house until 1960. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and has been a museum since 1977.

Columbia, South Carolina · United States