Penn Center sits on St. Helena Island, about ten miles east of downtown Beaufort, and is among the most historically important Black cultural sites in the South. Penn School was founded in 1862 — during the Civil War, on land taken from a fled planter — to teach formerly enslaved Sea Island Gullah people. It ran as a school for nearly a century before becoming a Gullah heritage and conference centre.
The York W. Bailey Museum on site is the best place anywhere to learn about Gullah-Geechee history, language, and culture. The wider campus is a National Historic Landmark District in its own right; the live oaks, the simple wooden buildings, and the marshes behind them are a quiet, dignified place to spend an afternoon. The annual Heritage Days festival in November is the time to visit if you can.