As the textile industry fueled Greenville’s downtown building boom in the 1920s, most of the construction centered on Court Square and extended north along Main Street (such as the Woodside Building and the Keith Building). These inevitably served the prospering white businessmen running the mills and banks; however, Greenville’s Black community was also making strides in the professional world, despite the ongoing presence of segregation.
Perhaps the most significant signal of those advancements was the construction of the Working Benevolent Temple and Professional Building in 1922 on the northeast corner of East Broad and Falls streets. Financing was provided by the Working Benevolent State Grand Lodge of South Carolina, a society dedicated to the health, welfare and burial benefits of Black Americans. Two years before the temple opened, the lodge began its outreach into Greenville with the establishment of the Working Benevolent Society Hospital on the corner of Green Avenue and Jenkins Street. The temple became the headquarters of the lodge and held its administrative offices.
The handsome three-story brick building spans 21,000 square feet, extending 100 feet along East Broad and 75 feet along Falls Street. The local architectural firm of Beacham & LeGrand designed the building. Storefronts originally lined the south and west street sides of the building, giving entrepreneurs a chance to start up small businesses. One of these was Clarence Peters, who was one of the first tenants of the building when he opened up a barbershop in 1923. Peters is one of the many who benefited from the opportunities the temple provided for the Black community. Other owner-operated businesses located there included cafés and a drugstore. The second floor of the temple also housed crucial downtown office space for a number of Black lawyers, dentists, insurance agents and doctors, as well as organizations like the South Carolina Negro Life Association.
Not only were the needs of the living served in the building, but Greenville’s first Black mortuary was also located here for many years. During the civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s, the temple was the focal point of organization and discussion as Black Americans sought to gain equal political and social freedoms. After many decades of use, the building was largely abandoned in the early 1980s except for Clarence Peters’s barbershop. The temple escaped demolition and was instead accepted into the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Nearly $1 million in renovations brought the deteriorating building back to life in 1983. In 1985, Dunlop Sports Corp. expanded its Greenville headquarters to the building, which later served as the offices for Erwin-Penland Advertising. A large part of the building now is occupied by Nelson & Galbreath.
In 1924, the Phillis Wheatley Center moved from its original East McBee location and built a three-story brick building at 121 E. Broad St., next door to the Working Benevolent Temple, with money generously contributed from both Black and white donors. With these two buildings and the adjacent John Wesley United Methodist Church around the corner, the block bounded by East Court, Falls Street, and East Broad served as a significant site in Greenville’s Black history.
John M. Nolan is owner of Greenville History Tours (greenvillehistorytours.com) and author of “A Guide to Historic Greenville, SC” and “Lost Restaurants of Greenville, SC.”
