For the past three years, Historic Columbia has offered Free Sundays to residents of Lexington and Richland counties. On the third Sunday of each month, one of five historic homes in Columbia is open to the public at no cost. This month, the Modjeska Monteith Simkins House on Marion Street was featured.
The house recognizes Modjeska Simkins, a civil rights activist who contributed to health, voting rights, and education reform in South Carolina from the 1940s to the 1970s. Li Hubbard, weekend staff coordinator for Historic Columbia, leads tours during Free Sundays and invites community participation. Hubbard notes that many of Simkins’ causes are still relevant today.
The house includes multimedia exhibits and informational boards about Simkins’ work and its context in Columbia’s history. On October 19, 2025, Melissa Stuckey, director of public history at the University of South Carolina, visited the Simkins House with her Practice of Public History class…