Minnie Lacy’s Boarding House

One of the most popular boarding houses was run by Ms. Minnie Lacy.

According to The Tiger’s 2010 article “Recognizing the Women of H-SC”–

Her father was the college physician in the 1890s.  As was common at colleges across the nation at the time, students lived in boarding houses and there was no College-run dining hall.  Boarding houses were often the homes of faculty and staff.  Lacy house (now called Hampden House) was the most desirable of the fourteen boarding houses on campus.  Miss Minnie took over running the boarding house and fed up to fifty students while renting them rooms.  

Lacy employed several African American workers at her boarding house, including John Anderson, Charley Brown (butler), and the unidentified porter pictured below.