Laura Towne founded the Penn School in 1862 to provide educational opportunities for the former enslaved people on St. Helena Island, South Carolina. Although the school began in one room of the Oaks Plantation, it soon moved to the Brick Church where they held classes until 1865 when the Philadelphia Society sent a pre-fabricated schoolhouse that was placed on the adjacent land and which became the Penn School campus. The school also served as a community and cultural center and eventually grew to have 17 buildings. After Towne’s death Rupert Sargent Holland edited Letters and Diary of Laura M. Towne: Written from the Sea Islands of South Carolina, 1862-1884, which was published in 1912. Brick Church is located at 85 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive and is part of the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park.