Gullah Learning Center ~ Jane Hamilton School part 3

Jane Hamilton School house..is now the Gullah Learning Center and the island's library. The windows you see here are high for ventilation and also to keep the children from becoming distracted by the road. There is a bank of floor to ceiling windows on the opposite side that provide light.

 Early 1900’s.

Inside is filled with historical artifacts found on the island or donated to the learning center .

and on the shelves was a few of mine and Beth's favorite author Dorothea Benton Frank and 

Mary Kay Andrews along with some of the island's local authors Billie Burns ~ AN ISLAND NAMED DAUFUSKIE and Roger Pinckney who's newest book Reefer Moon  is on the top of my want list ..
Click here to read a very lively piece about Mr. Pinckney and the island that was written last year for the Charleston City paper.... and when you read this piece you will see reference to Dr. Buzzard  if  you are a  Midnight in the garden of good and evil   fan you will remember him and Miss Minerva.. 

here's what Dorothea Benton Frank had to say about 
Reefer Moon...

 “Nobody knows the South Carolina Lowcountry like Roger Pinckney, hunter, fisher and voodoo man. He's the real thing. When Pinckney writes about love on a moonlit beach, you know he's been there. Facing down a wild boar in a briar patch, you know he's been there too.
 “Reefer Moon” is a cry for wild places, on the earth
 and in the heart. Unforgettable! Roars with life! ”

There is also local cookbooks and a little book some of you may remember by Pat Conroy...  The Water is Wide which was set on Daufuskie, fictionalized as "Yamacraw Island." The book recounts Mr. Conroy's experiences teaching on the island in the 1960s and I will add if you read it remember it is just a tale and the locals weren't really happy with parts of his tale...

The learning center is filled with wonderful information on how everyday life was lived from education to making a living.

Jane Hamilton was a native islander who donated the land for this school in the 1940s. Until then, black children on the opposite end of the island would have to walk to get to the Mary Fields School during the era of segregation. The building housed children for about 10 years,
 until busing arrived on the island. You can read
 the rest of this story here.

and the wood used inside this building was gorgeous... 

I adore the pictures Beth took of the old bottles do you see the rainbow of colors in a couple of them..

OK there's still more to come.. 

hope ya'll are enjoying the tour so far..

and if you missed part one you can see it here

and part two here...

hugs, Cherry