Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
BUILDER TO HONOR FORMER SLAVE
WEST CHESTER » With construction of an historic marker, builder Eli Kahn and partner Adam Loew, will honor former slave and prominent AfricanAmerican businessman Charles
H. Burns.
Burns catered mostly to white customers at Burns’ Great Oyster House, at 34 W. Gay Street, where he operated the business for more than 25 years starting in 1891.
Kahn is putting the finishing touches on the mixed-use building and fountain, 44 West, at the corner of Church and Gay streets. The former Oyster House building was razed, along with the Mosteller Department Store building, at the site most recently occupied by Chester County.
Borough Manager Mike Perrone said that Burns, a former slave, had done a “phenomenal job considering the times.”
Born a slave in Culpepper, Virginia around 1855, Burns’ family came north to West Chester during the Civil War. Burns worked in Princeton, New Jersey and then returned to West Chester about 1875 and went to work for a local attorney.
A borough agenda attachment reads: “In 1880, Burns opened a small oyster and eating saloon. He exhibited an entrepreneurial spirit characterized by expansion, innovation, and diversification.”
Burns was also a leader in the African-American community.
In 1891, he became president of the Liberty Coronet Band, an African-American musical group of wide renown.
He was an active member of Bethel AME Church and was involved in several fraternal organizations. Burns was also a political activist and led opposition to school segregation and other forms of racism. He died in 1917. The former Oyster House building at 34 W. Gay Street was likely constructed in the first half of the 19th century. Among the many businesses located here were Fairlamb and Lear, Hardware (18791885); Charles H. Burns, Restaurant (1890-1915); James Spence Jr., Restaurant (1923); and Jake Shur’s Army and Navy Store (1940 to approximately 1982).
Many longtime shoppers will remember buying boots at Jake Shur’s. During the 1920’s, James Spence Jr. also operated a restaurant at this location (34 W. Gay Street). His father, James Spence, like Charles Burns, was a leading AfricanAmerican entrepreneur and community leader in West Chester at the turn of the 20th century.
The elder Spence also had a highly successful restaurant that was at 29 E. Gay St.
Loew said the historic marker will contain silver lettering, with a black background, on aluminum, and read: “At this location stood 34 W. Gay Street, a three-story townhouse and the home to Burns’ Great Oyster House from 18901915. Its founder Charles H. Burns was a prominent African-American entrepreneur whose vision and efforts here, in 1890, initiated Burns’ Great Oyster House which was known for its superior quality and service.”
Loew expects to place the marker at eye-level in early October near the former Oyster House site.
“Burns was a distinguished Black entrepreneur of his time, and it is a pleasure to be able to celebrate Mr. Burns and tell his story,” Loew said. “Drafting the language to tell Mr. Burns’ story was a true collaboration of our team, the NAACP, the Historical Society, HARB, Borough Council, and Borough staff.”