1900 Block of Henderson Street

Front inscription

This block features a dense collection of late 19th and early 20th c. houses historically associated with and home to African Americans. Residing here through the mid-1900s were many middle- and working-class African Americans, including barbers, teachers, nurses, carpenters, cooks, porters, maids, a butcher, a pastor, and a blacksmith. By the 1940s, several properties here were owned by barber William J. Sumter.

William J. Sumter

The house at 1931 Henderson St. was the home of William J. Sumter (1881-1967), an African American entrepreneur who owned and operated a well-known barber shop on Main St. from 1905-1954, said to have the oldest in Columbia when it closed. Sumter purchased this house in 1909 from African American carpenter John W. Bailey. Sumter and his wife Daisy A. Robinson, lived here with their children. He later owned 1921 and 1925 Henderson St., which he rented to tenants.