Claflin University is known for its historic buildings and sites, as a campus of outstanding architectural harmony and for its natural and landscaped beauty. Three of the university’s historic buildings, Tingley Memorial Hall, the Arthur Rose Museum (formerly the Lee Library) and Ministers’ Hall are included in The Council of Independent Colleges’ Historic Campus Architecture Project.

The 43-acre pedestrian campus is located in Orangeburg, South Carolina, having expanded from its original site the Orangeburg Female Academy, which it took occupancy of in 1869.

The city of Orangeburg, with a population of 15,000 is located 40 miles southeast of Columbia, the capital of South Carolina and Claflin, as the oldest historically black institution in the state, continues to give the city prominence.

The Claflin College Historic District

The Claflin College Historic District is comprised of five educational buildings constructed between 1898 and ca. 1915 in the historic core of the Claflin College campus. The district is significant for its association with the important contributions of the college to African American education in South Carolina in the early twentieth century and is architecturally significant as an intact collection of early twentieth century educational buildings.