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927 Pine Street
927 Pine StreetSite of Julius Franklin Bowman Home
Directly descended from a free-black family that settled Calla and Selwood (present-day Irmo), Julius Franklin Bowman founded the first African-American drayage, or freight moving, business in Columbia in 1912. With his carpentry skills, Bowman built a two-story house that once stood on this site. Here, he and his wife raised four children – a son, who later assumed the family business, and three daughters, all of whom graduated from college. Chappelle A.M.E. found its way into the community through a Sunday school class hosted by Bowman. Later, he helped build Chappelle Station A.M.E. Church on the corner of Pine and Senate streets. Bowman also served on its Board of Trustees of the Columbia Conference as secretary-treasurer until his death in 1934.
