After 1954, Dr. John Palmer purchased the Avery buildings and operated Palmer Business College on the site for more than two decades, when the school moved to another downtown location. In 1978, a group of Avery graduates (known as “Averyites”) and friends of Avery organized The Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture. Their purpose was to obtain the former Avery Normal School buildings and establish an archives and museum dedicated to preserving African-American history and culture in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The Avery Institute’s first president was the Honorable Lucille S. Whipper, a former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from Charleston County.
