The exact date of construction of the original property at 62 Queen Street is unclear, but according to the 1880 census it included a small brick “single house” structure. Historic engineering reports suggest the structure was most likely built in the early 1800s.

 

Jason Brown and his new wife Dianna, an emancipated African American couple, first moved to Charleston from South Carolina’s Pee Dee region in 1878. Shortly after marrying, the Browns followed in the footsteps of the waves of freed people who migrated to Charleston during Reconstruction to seek economic independence, and social and political security.

 

When the Browns arrived in Charleston, they first settled at 12 Chalmers Street, where Jason and his brother Eugene opened a hack stable business that helped foster the family’s rise in black Charleston society. By 1881, the business and family had moved one block north to the property later numbered as 62 Queen Street. By at least 1884, a structure was built around the earlier building at 62 Queen that housed the livery stable with horses for hire. The Browns ran the livery business in a large adjacent structure that is now a parking lot.

 

The stables were damaged by falling debris in the massive 1886 Charleston earthquake, but survived the disaster. By 1888, the front portion of the building was converted to a two-story building with a brick first floor and frame second floor attached to a one-story wood hack house and stable to the rear. The southwestern quarter of the building was converted to dwelling space, with a two-story piazza added along the west elevation of the residential portion of the building, a configuration typical of the Charleston single house.

 

Dianna Brown assisted with the stable business downstairs while raising 15 children upstairs. She began privately dealing furniture around 1913 before devoting herself full time to the trade in 1915, when she opened the 62 Queen Street antique shop at the age of 60. She acquired a business license in 1920. The decision to repurpose 62 Queen coincided with her husband’s retirement and the closure of the livery stable, which was probably prompted by the increasing obsolescence of horse-drawn transportation amid the growing popularity of the automobile.

 

It was Dianna Brown’s work with the stable that likely provided her first engagement with the Charlestonians who later patronized her antique shop. While 62 Queen Street is a simple building, it is greatly important for an understanding of the struggles of African Americans and women in the economically challenged city of Charleston at that time. During Dianna Brown’s significant career between 1915 to 1949,  she crossed the divides of race and class to become a successful businesswoman whose antiquities trade was known across the country. 

 

Today the property at 62 Queen Street has undergone a careful restoration done with utmost care in preserving the building’s historic fabric, appearance and integrity. The building at 62 Queen Street (Dianna Brown’s Antique Shop) has also broken new ground as the first National Register of Historic Places listing downtown to honor the diverse contribution of women and minorities.

 

This brief narrative is exerted from extensive research and documentation prepared by Ralph C. Muldrow, Professor of Art & Architectural History, and Historic Preservation and Community Planning at the College of Charleston. With assistance from the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Muldrow provided signification historical information vital for the property's listing on the National Register of Historic Places. 

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Complete documented historic information is available here.