Columbia Housing Salutes Black History - Rev. Charles Jaggers

Columbia Housing is proud to celebrate Black History month by highlighting notable figures that impacted our organization and community.

Reverend Charles Jaggers

March 15, 1831 - August 18, 1924

Charles Jaggers was born into slavery in Chester County, South Carolina in 1831. After the Civil War, he migrated north to Columbia, where he lived with his wife and sons on Oak Street in the Lower Waverly neighborhood. Though he never received official seminary education or ordination, Jaggers was addressed as "Reverend" by whites and blacks alike, and was beloved for his ministry to prisoners, the ill, the poor, and the elderly, the latter for whom he established The Old Folks' Home in the Barhamville-Waverly area. When Reverend Jaggers died in 1924 at age 93, his funeral attracted thousands of mourners-including the state governor Thomas Gordon McLeod and former governors-and moved the mayor to call for the closure of all city businesses during the funeral service hour.

In 1958 Columbia Housing dedicated Jaggers Terrace, on the site of the nineteenth-century Barhamville Collegiate Institute for Women. Jagger's Terrace provided 74 units of apartment living for families for over 40 years. In 1999, the Columbia Housing Authority demolished this complex and erected 25 single-family houses on the site.

Columbia Housing celebrates its 90th Anniversary in 2024. We currently serve over 16,000 individuals and families in the CIty of Columbia, Richland County and the City of Cayce.

Special thanks to Historic Columbia for their work to capture the early history of Columbia Housing