About

This National Historical Park, designated in 2017 (later elevated from monument status in 2019), preserves key Reconstruction-era sites around Beaufort—such as Darrah Hall (Penn Center), Brick Baptist Church, the Old Beaufort Firehouse Visitor Center, and the Camp Saxton/Emancipation Grove, where the Emancipation Proclamation was first publicly read in the region in 1863. The park highlights critical milestones like voting by freedmen, property ownership, and institution-building after the Civil War.