North Charleston resident Ken Battle’s decade-long plan to expand his civic involvement paid off this summer when he was elected president of the Exchange Club of Charleston. The one-year term now allows him to follow another goal to raise money for the Philip Simmons House Museum, which was added this month to the National Register of Historic Places.
Battle said he pursued the Exchange Club’s top leadership role to encourage its members to do more to support local Black organizations, and the Philip Simmons museum is a prime candidate for that kind of help.
“The Philip Simmons Museum is so important in the Black community because it represents the dedication and craftsmanship displayed by influential and talented people in our culture,” said Battle, founder of the Black Heritage Trial of the Lowcountry.
“The way the Exchange Club is organized and the way the members work together to serve the community is a true example of what should happen in the Black community,” he explained. “The Philip Simmons Museum is in poor condition because we, in the Black community, do not approach issues of culture with the same passion and heart to preserve our treasured historic sites.”
A ‘major concern’
The urgency to assist the museum’s steward, the Philip Simmons Foundation, was heightened in September when a broken tree limb punctured the museum’s roof, allowing rainwater to pour in one of the cottage’s bathrooms at 30½ Blake St.
The house was once the home of the legendary blacksmith Philip Simmons. It is now a small museum and gift shop that showcases Simmons’ 77-year-old career in ironworks. The two-bedroom cottage is adjacent to the Simmon’ blacksmith shop.
Battle has not yet talked with Simmons’ grandson, Elmer Gilliam Jr., chair of the Simmons foundation, about his idea to support a fundraiser for the museum.
However, Gilliam told the Charleston City Paper: “That is a great idea, and I would definitely look forward to working with Ken and the Exchange Club.”
The damaged roof is a “major concern,” Gilliam said. “The tree is in a neighbor’s yard,” he said. “We had approached him about trimming that tree back. We were afraid that something like this would happen. Trying to get them to take responsibility for that has been challenging.”
Gilliam estimates the foundation needs less than $15,000 to fix the roof, the bathroom, a ramp leading to it and do exterior painting. An optimistic Gilliam said a fundraising campaign could be launched in the spring of 2027.
Gilliam, an engineer based in Raleigh, N.C., chuckled when he said optimism is part of his nature. The other part of his optimism, he said, springs from “the interest in the foundation from the community right now. Having someone like Ken and his organization come on to support us also drives that optimism.”
The original iron
To raise money, Rossie Colter, the foundation’s project administrator, said she envisions the museum auctioning off some of Simmons’ original iron pieces, such as window grills and gates that are leaning against the wall at the museum’s entrance.
Gilliam said the iron work would be good auction items, but they would need to be cleaned and “repainted to put them into a more finished state,” he explained.
The pieces were likely forged in Simmons’ workshop that is adjacent to the museum. Last year, students at the American College of the Building Arts (ACBA) temporarily used the workshop as a classroom to train the next generation of artisans.
“I do hope that in future, ACBA can continue to use the site as a laboratory for learning,” said the college’s provost Christina Rae Butler.
Butler prepared the National Register nomination letter for the Simmons property. The NPS accepted it earlier this month, she said. The NPS has not posted the final edited version of the letter on its website, she added.
“The buildings deserve proper recognition for their importance because of their association both with Philip Simmons, but also with Rosetta Simmons, who was a civil rights leader during the 1969 hospital workers strike in Charleston, she said. “Another motive for listing (the property) is that it makes a building eligible for state historic tax credits when a restoration takes place.”
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