Charles S. Lawton was born 1845 in Orangeburg, SC. He probably endured enslavement. He served as a cook in the Confederate Army under William Townsend in Beaufort and received a pension for his military service

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On August 29, 1871 he purchased a plot of land on Treadwell Street from Mary B. Treadwell, widow of Dr. William Treadwell. Circa 1901, Charles H. Lawton Jr. (C.H. Lawton), a carpenter by trade, built a home for his wife Amanda and six children.  C.H. Lawton died in 1938 and left the house to his widow, Amanda.

In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Mrs. Amanda Lawton, CH’s widow, and later their daughter Gertrude Ford, opened this home to house college students attending Claflin College and South Carolina State College.  In the midst of Jim Crow segregation and the racism of the South, many students found refuge living in this vibrant community of caring neighbors who provided nurturing for emerging African American leaders. Upon her death in 1966 the house was left to C.H. and Amanda’s six children and their subsequent heirs.

On September 20, 1985, The Lawton House was included among 40 homes as part of the Treadwell Street Historic District listed in the National Register. The house is over 120 years old and remains in the Lawton family. It is the longest continuously family-owned property in the Treadwell St. Historic District .