South Carolina Historical Marker #10-79

While we were exploring Charleston, I stopped at a number of South Carolina historical markers, including: Thomas Smith [#10-03], The Siege of Charleston, 1780 [#10-65], The Seizure of the Planter [#10-76], Kress Building [#10-79], Jonathan Jasper Wright Law Office [#10-82] and U.S. Courthouse and Post Office/Briggs V. Elliott [#10-85].

Kress Building/Civil Rights Sit-Ins
South Carolina Historical Marker #10-79
See this location on Yahoo Maps in Flickr
See this location on Google Maps
This marker is located at 281 King Street, Charleston, South Carolina. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 32° 46.968 W 079° 56.059.

You can log your visit to this landmark at waymark.com.

This three-story Art Deco building, built in 1930-31 was a 5- and 10-cent store owned by S.H. Kress & Co. until 1980. Kress, with about 400 American stores, designed its own buildings. This store features a yellow brick facade with colorful and decorative glazed terracotta details typical of Kress’s Art Deco designs. A 1941 two-story addition faces Wentworth Street. McCrory Stores bought this building in 1980, operating it under the Kress name until 1992.

On April 1, 1960, the lunch counter here and those at the Woolworth’s and W.T. Grant’s stores on King St. were the targets of the city’s first civil rights “sit-in.” Black students from Burke High School were denied service but refused to leave. Arrested for trespassing, they were later convicted and fined. This youth-led protest was the beginning of a broader civil rights movement in Charleston.