This portion of the Riverwalk along Charleston's Cooper River was dedicated in memory to Philip Simmons. This location marks the beginning of the area in which the new International African American Museum is sited for construction.
The outbuilding with the kitchen and slave quarters is to the left; the carriage house and stables are to the right. The open doorway on the ground floor of the main house to the left leads to the warming-kitchen.
On the second floor of this particular outbuilding is the slaves' sleeping quarters. This corridor features windows that overlook the yard; the rooms are to the right.
The kitchen of the Aiken-Rhett House sits on the ground floor of the outbuilding that also contains the slave quarters above. This kitchen is where it is believed that the slaves communally took their meals.
The Aiken-Rhett House Museum has been conserved and run by the Historic Charleston Foundation. It features an impressive back lot where the original slave quarters and outbuildings still exist. These walls surround that lot.
In 1945, the Cigar Factory was the site of a famous strike--1200 workers, mostly black women, walked out over discrimination and low wages, singing "We Shall Overcome," which would become the anthem of the Civil Right Movement.