The site of a century-plus-old institution on the Charleston peninsula is now under new ownership.
Nine months after Fielding Home for Funerals announced the less-than-acre property at Logan and Magazine streets was on the market, the site changed hands Oct. 4.
Nearby Charleston Day School paid slightly more than $10 million for the property, according to county land records.
Fielding Home for Funerals, started in 1912, has operated at 122 Logan St. on the Charleston peninsula since 1928. The property sold Oct. 4 for just over $10 million. Avison Young/Provided
The not-so-secret transaction was finalized about five months after the city Planning Commission took up a request to allow school use of the property. Charleston Day also had purchased a house at 7 Magazine St. adjacent to the funeral home last October for $800,000.
A representative of Charleston Day said the school’s future on the peninsula is now secure.
“This acquisition answers the location question for Charleston Day School once and for all, providing the footprint the school needs to accommodate the school’s facility needs and aspirations for the future,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “After 85 years as a downtown school, this exciting opportunity secures the future of our historic K-8 institution as an integral part of the vibrant Charleston community.”
More definite plans for the site will be outlined in the future, according to a school spokesperson.
Gerry Schauer of the commercial real estate firm Avison Young, which handled the listing in conjunction with residential agency Lois Lane Properties, also said the acquisition will help with the private school’s future plans.
“It will make a big difference in whether they can stay on the peninsula,” he said. “It expands their footprint and gives them flexibility.”
A funeral home representative said the firm’s 13 stockholders are satisfied with the transaction and look forward to the property’s transformation.
“We are happy that it’s already someone who is part of the community,” said Gail Fielding-Davis, secretary of the funeral home’s board of directors and a descendant of the original founder.
“The purchase will allow them to stay in the community and be able to expand,” she said.
Fielding-Davis noted the longtime downtown site will be vacated by Oct. 15. In the interim, operations are transitioning to the company’s satellite mortuary at 2704 Meeting Street Road in North Charleston, which also is under contract to be sold. The closing on that property is scheduled for Nov. 8.
“We want to express our appreciation to our community for all of the support they have shown to Fielding Home for Funerals all of these years,” she said. “The Fielding family has been an active member of the Charleston community and intends to continue to do so.”
The Fielding Home for Funerals site on Meeting Street Road in North Charleston is under contract to be sold. The main operation on the Charleston peninsula sold Oct. 4 for just over $10 million. Warren L. Wise/Staff
Fielding Home for Funerals is one of the last remaining mortuary businesses on the peninsula that has historically served the Black community.
The enterprise started in 1912 at Logan and Short streets before moving in 1928 to the present site a couple of blocks north in a three-story, stuccoed house built in the late 1790s by a well-to-do butcher.
For the past 95 years, generations of African American families paid tribute to loved ones through last rites at the funeral home in the Harleston Village neighborhood.
Fielding Home for Funerals also had an office in Hollywood, which opened in 1990. The 1.2-acre site was sold in 2022 to Murray’s Mortuary of North Charleston for $450,000, according to land records.
The downtown site is made up of five parcels, including the original house, as well as four smaller properties abutting Logan and Magazine streets.
The departure of Fielding Home for Funerals will leave the peninsula with at least two other historically Black funeral businesses.
Dorothy’s Home for Funerals is at 78 Cannon St. while Palmetto Mortuary can be found at 1122 Morrison Drive.
The former Harleston-Boags Funeral Home at 121 Calhoun St. was redeveloped during the past decade and until recently served as the offices of architecture firm McMillan Pazdan Smith. The firm is now in the new Morrison Yard office building on Morrison Drive.