Allen University Renovation Plans
Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital
The annex would be named after the late Sen. Clementa C. Pinckney (Allen University Class of 1995), a state senator who was one of those killed in the shooting, and would house the school’s new Institute of Civility. A memorial to the nine Emanuel victims would be located in the lobby.
The annex would also be home to a South Carolina African-American hall of fame.
“It would be based on achievement,” Allen President Ernest McNealey said in an exclusive interview with The State newspaper.
Also, officials of the private liberal arts college operated by the African Methodist Episcopal Church plan to renovate the former Carver Theater on Harden Street into a performance space, McNealey said. They would raze adjacent buildings, including the former Royal Motel, and build commercial space. The project could cost up to $2 million.
And the school has purchased a block of property along Millwood Avenue, which presently hosts the former Bundrick’s Kar Kare and Star Beauty buildings. The plan is to raze the buildings and create a park.
“We want to raise the overall aesthetic nature of the neighborhood,” McNealey said.
The hospital, located at 2204 Hampton St., cared for African-American patients for only 21 years, from 1952 to 1973. It closed when Richland Memorial Hospital opened and it was unable to compete for patients, according to a story in The State.
Known as “Good Sam,” the hospital was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
Allen bought the building in 1987, hoping to make it a physical education center. But that and other plans for the building have stalled because of fundraising difficulties.
The most recent plan also would require additional fundraising, McNealey said, but work is expected to begin this summer.
