Nathaniel Jerome Frederick House
1416 Park Street

Overview:
The house at 1416 Park Street, originally known as 1416 Gates Street, was once the residence of Nathaniel Jerome Frederick, the only practicing African-American lawyer in Columbia.   Built in 1903/1904 by Captain J. Carroll, Frederick’s future father-in-law the two-story rectangular house is a prominent piece of Columbia’s African-American heritage.

Architectural Overview:
The body of the two-story rectangular house is built on brick piers infilled with cement block, wooden clapboard siding, two interior brick chimneys and hipped roof with metal standing seam sheeting.  Originally the house boasted a two-story porch, but was changed to current one story wrapped porch configuration sometime after 1956¹.   The windows are two-over-two double hung sash flanked by operable black shutters.  A bay window is located on the first floor of the south façade and a transom highlights the main entrance on Park Street.  The rear of the house includes a small one-story section that was originally a back porch.

Cultural Overview:
Located near Columbia’s African-American central business section on Washington Street, Captain Carroll purchased the piece of property from the Capital Building and Loan Association in 1873.  By the late 19th century, two small dwellings occupied by Rose E. Walker and George Morris, both African-Americans in the service industry, with the addresses 1412 and 1414 Gates Street.  Carroll replaced these two residences with the house at 1416 Park Street in 1903².   Captain Carroll was the commissioner of Richland County’s public schools during the Reconstruction era and part owner of Carroll and Bailey Grocers located at 1122 Washington Street³.

Nathaniel Jerome Frederick began his career in Columbia as the principal of Howard School in 1901, which was the only public school for black children at that time.   It may be through his duties as principal at Howard School that Mr. Frederick became acquainted with Captain Carroll’s daughter Corinna, whom he would marry in 1904.  The Carroll and Frederick families moved into the house at 1416 Park Street in 1904 and lived with each other at from 1904 until 1911, when Mrs. Corinna Frederick inherited the house from her mother Catherine, Captain Carroll’s widow⁴.

The house at 1416 Park Street is most significant for its association with Nathaniel Jerome Frederick, Columbia’s only practicing African-American lawyer. Born in Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1877, Nathaniel Frederick graduated from Claflin College, the University of Michigan and Benedict College before going on to become principal of Howard School⁵.   During his tenure as principal, Mr. Frederick also studied law under several South Carolina judges and, though he never received a law degree, he was admitted to the South Carolina Bar Association and began practicing in 1913⁶.   From 1914 until 1928, Mr. Frederick continued as principal at Howard School and practiced law from his office at the North Carolina Mutual Building located at 1001 ½ Washington Street. 

Frederick’s most notable case was the appeal of the Lowman family murder trial in Aiken, South Carolina.  In 1925, three members of the Lowman family had been charged with the murder of a white sheriff’s deputy in Aiken County.  Frederick filed an appeal to the South Carolina Supreme Court and won.  Tragically, three days after the order for a new trial was given in the early morning hours of October 8th, 1926, the three Lowman family members were dragged from their jail cell in downtown Aiken, driven two miles outside of town and executed⁷.   The following day the State newspaper interviewed Frederick and it was stated, “He had come to Aiken to defend the Lowmans and this morning there was no one to defend.  No threats were made against him, so far as he knew, he said, and the rumor that he was escorted out of town was, he declared, untrue.”⁸

Nathaniel Jerome Frederick also served as editor of Columbia’s black newspaper, The Palmetto Leader and The Southern Indicator from the mid 1920s until the late 1930s.  The Columbia City Directory for 1923 –1924 list Frederick as attorney, notary and secretary treasurer of the Regal Drug Store.  Frederick was also the driving force behind the founding of The Victory Savings Bank and served as the bank’s attorney⁹.   Frederick also served as attorney for several local African-American organizations including the Victory Savings Bank and the Knights of Pythias.¹⁰ 

 In September of 1938, Frederick died in his home at 1416 Park Street and is buried in Columbia’s Palmetto Cemetery.¹¹   At the time of his death, Frederick had become one of Columbia’s most prominent African-American leaders.  He had appeared before the South Carolina Supreme Court more than any black lawyer in South Carolina history, serving as counsel in 33 reported Supreme Court decisions and won nine of 29 civil case appeals.¹²    Following Nathaniel Frederick’s death in 1938, Corinne Frederick continued to occupy the home until 1943.  From 1943 until 1944, the home remained vacant and was finally purchased by Charles C. Williams in 1945.

Mr. Williams owned and occupied the home from 1945 until 1968, when it was deeded over to his daughter Maggie, who lived in the home until 1987.  In 1989, the house was deeded to Mary Thompson, and for next three years served as the location of Jacqueline’s Tailoring and Alterations.  For the third and final time, the house became vacant in 1991 and remained so until 2000, when Leslie McIver, a descendant of Mr. Frederick purchased it for five dollars and made minor improvements to the property.  In May 2005, Ms. McIver sold seventy-five (75%) interest of the property to Robert Lewis and kept twenty-five (25%) interest and in turn leased to Mr. Lewis for 15 years.

The property received a complete renovation while keeping the original floors, room configurations, walls, fireplaces and most of the molding and trim.  Most of the original windows were repaired, although some historic replacement windows were installed on the façade.  All new plumbing, heating and electrical systems were installed and Byrd, Stillinger & Associates purchased the home in 2008.

¹Bob Hane, Columbia Star, 1-6.
²The Nathaniel Jerome Frederick House, Richland County Public Library Resource.
³Walsh’s Columbia, South Carolina, City Directory, 1903-1906.
⁴Hane, 6; Walsh’s Columbia, South Carolina, City Directory, 1904-1910.
⁵Brenna Reilly. “County Bar to honors its first black member,” June 14, 1996.
⁶Deas Moore, Vennie. Columbia and Richland County, 257, 380-381.
⁷Land, Lorena D. The shame of South Carolina: the Lowman Lynching, 1997. 12.
⁸Buchanan, G.A.  “Lowman Lynchings,” The State. October 9 1926, 1, 5.
⁹Richard Carroll (1860-1926) 2 Vols. BD; Sept. 1904 c. Feb. 1923 Souvenir and Official Program of the Mid-Winter Session of the Bishop’s Council of the AME Church. Manuscripts Division, South Caroliniana Library.
¹⁰Joseph J. Boris, ed., Who’s Who in Colored America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Persons of Negro Descent in America (New York: Who’s Who in Colored America Corp Publishers, 1927), 70.
¹¹Greater Columbia, South Carolina, City and Suburban Directory, 1918; John Hammond Moore, Columbia and Richland County: A South Carolina Community, 1740-1990. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1993) 234.
¹²Burke, W. Lewis and Belinda F. Gergel, Matthew J. Perry: The Man, His Times, and His Legacy.  (Columbia:  University of South Carolina Press, 2004) 24.

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