DNCR - Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum - Tea House Renovation

This project involves the rehabilitation of the 1,950-sq ft Tea house, a contributing building within the National Register listed Palmer Memorial Institute Historic District in Sedalia. It was originally constructed in the 1920's & had 2 subsequent additions, which were incorporated into the existing structure following a fire in the 1960's. Federal grant funds awarded by the National Park Service, U.S Department of the Interior will be used to rehabilitate the structure for occupancy & follow current configurations as repaired following that fire. The goal is to open the Tea House to the public & use it as an interpretive space to tell the story of Dr. Brown’s approach to entrepreneurial training & empowerment during the Civil Rights era. The Tea House is a story of education and black business incubation in the era of legal segregation. The Palmer Memorial Institute and its Tea House represented a pioneering approach to education and a tribute to African American determination during the Jim Crow era. Yet today, the once bustling hub of campus activity is not habitable, a quickly fading vestige of Jim Crow defiance and the Civil Rights movement.