Wanted! This Rural School That's Maybe in Edgefield County?

Seriously, have you seen or know of this school?

 In 2010, I had an internship with the South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office-- it was fantastic-- and my job was to survey selected counties for remaining Rosenwald Schools. Most of my time was spent compiling a list of schools to survey as well as mapping out the historic locations so that we could site check them. I would site survey, solo, in the counties around my home in Aiken in order to save time...and well, I loved the time by myself. I took the above photograph of this school on July 20, 2010 near the end of a not so successful surveying day. That day, I surveyed all of the known locations for Rosenwald Schools in Edgefield and Saluda Counties that I could not clearly view from satellite and Google Street View-- 9 schools out of 17. Unless, the historic locations turned up in the middle of a cleared field on the satellite image, I was going surveying.

I found the above schoolhouse en route to a Rosenwald School on my list.* So I was sweaty, out of patience, and very sleepy from the rhythm of hours of driving down miles of hot country roads. I drove by the schoolhouse initially then turned around to pull over for the photograph. It was in a cleared  cow pasture out in the middle of what I think was Edgefield County with no one around save for the inhabited house behind the school. And the cows. Now, I knew the road I was on at the time, but for the life of me, I don't know why I didn't write down the road then (well again, I was sweaty, impatient, and sleepy) in relation to the photograph. I also cannot remember any kind of landmarks or significant buildings that I could go back and find. I just know I was near a county line-- so either McCormick or Saluda--as I believe I was coming from Edgefield. Hence my hunt for this school. I'm becoming quite obsessed with finding it.


Similar schoolhouse designs found in Saluda County. Clockwise: Oak Grove, Saluda Primary, Saluda Colored Primary, and Fruit Hill. Photos from South Carolina School Insurance Photographs, 1935-1952.



Similar schoolhouse designs in McCormick County-- Bethany School and Lyons School. Photos from the South Carolina School Insurance Photographs, 1935-1952.

Someone has suggested this school looks like a Rosenwald School. This could be one, but it doesn't match up with those built in Edgefield or Saluda Counties. McCormick only had two Rosenwalds built and only one of those remain (see the Hopewell Rosenwald School National Register Nomination link in the right bar). If this school was a Rosenwald School, then it would have to be a modified Tuskegee plan. The roofline is very similar with a one roomed Tuskegee plan, but that was a common roof design for many country schools at the time. However, I am keeping my eyes and mind open-- I could be pleasantly surprised with what I will find.

I've looked in school insurance and Rosenwald file photographs....and so far, no cigar. I can also just search every field I can find via satellite images (I've found places this crazy way before) in Edgefield County near a county line--only half kidding! Regardless, I will find this school, though it may take many hours hunched over a computer or steering wheel! If any reader knows of this school, please email me at RuralSchoolhouseSC@gmail.com or go to the Rural Schoolhouses of South Carolina Facebook page.
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* I did find an existing Rosenwald School that day. Canebrake School in Saluda County was a one roomed Tuskegee Plan and had been converted into a house after the school closed in the 1950's. Though altered with some additions, the original building and roofline remain the same-- keeping it a historically significant building, in my opinion. Future blog post, for certain.

Reader Submitted: Delemars School, Dorchester County







There's a schoolhouse where? Roofline is visible through the trees in top section. Images from Google.

A few months back, I received a message from Alessa, blogger at Carolina HeartStrings, concerning an historic school located in Dorchester County, South Carolina. The school is known historically as Delemars School and is located off of Delmar Highway (Hwy. 165) outside of the Summerville/Charleston area. Satellite images, topographic maps, and Google Street View fun ensued-- thankful for simple location information!-- and I was able to find the location pretty quickly. It is encased in trees in the satellite and Streetview images and if not for the photographs sent by Alessa, I would not have noticed it. Alessa states that the land now looks as if it is being cleared and wondered if the school would soon be demolished.


School shown near red balloon. Topographic map cited from a 1981 geological survey.



Schoolhouse not shown  in a 1915 Dorchester Co. USDA Soil Survey map. Map found at SCDL.

A search through the South Carolina School Insurance Photographs taken between 1935-1952 for Dorchester County was not successful-- I'd like to find historic photos eventually. Next, I checked a 1915 Dorchester County USDA Soil Survey map via the South Carolina Digital Library's collection. The school is not shown. I'd like to know if it was an white or African-American school-- I know it is not a Rosenwald School, at least. From the photos, the school appears to be a two-roomed schoolhouse with a hipped roofline. The entrance consists of two doors each leading into a large classroom. The classrooms are divided by paneled door partitions that can be pulled away or closed.

Interior of school. Photos by Carolina Heartstrings, 2011.

 

Façade and side elevations. Photos by Carolina Heartstrings, 2011.

More information about this school would be very welcome-- I will continue to hunt for more information about Delemars School. Please feel free to submit information and photographs, of this school or others, to RuralSchoolhouseSC@gmail.com. You are the strongest resource I have in finding and documenting rural schoolhouses! On that note, thank you to Alessa at Carolina HeartStrings!

Photos of Pryor Colored School

Last weekend, on my way back from Charlotte, I took the opportunity to swing by the outskirts of Chester. My goal was to visit the site of the historic Pryor Colored School, built ca. 1898. This old school is very easy to find-- it sits at the top of a roadside embankment off of Lancaster Highway. Though I did not dare to trespass inside the school, I did take the liberty of walking around the building to take photos. The land is privately owned and I will be contacting the owner shortly to gain permission to investigate further. I am pleased to share some of the photos with you:

South facing facade. Photo by Haley Grant, 2013.



East elevation. Photo by Haley Grant, 2013.



East and north elevations. Photo by Haley Grant, 2013.

West elevation. Photo by Haley Grant, 2013.



Detail of facade. Photo by Haley Grant, 2013.

Pryor Colored School, Chester, SC. Photo from SC School Insurance Photographs, 1935-52, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.



Part II On Rural SC Schoolhouses: Hopewell Rosenwald School, McCormick Co.



Hopewell Rosenwald School after construction in 1926-1927 school year. The building adjacent to the school is Hopewell Baptist Church. Photo found in Rosenwald Fund Card File Database, Fisk University Special Collections.

Between 2008 and 2010, I researched the last remaining Rosenwald School in McCormick County, South Carolina. I was lucky enough to meet a former student, Georgia Collier-Scott, who was very active in preserving the school-- which was built near the site of the old school and adjacent to Hopewell Baptist. Hopewell Rosenwald was an important additon to a rural community greatly in need. Collier-Scott was a student at the old schoolhouse as well as the new-- and she could still recall, with great clarity, the run-down condition of the old school, also called Hopewell:

Collier-Scott as a young girl.

Courtesy of Collier-Scott.

“Hopewell school, as I remember it was a one room wood structure with one door facing what was then the main highway…with a window on each side facing each other, and a window in the back. It was not sealed, wooden benches served as seats for the students, and a wood burning stove furnished heat for the room. Three ten-inch boards nailed together and painted black, served as the blackboard…One teacher taught all subjects, and all grade levels.”



 

 

 

When the Rosenwald School Building Program started in 1912, its purpose was to solve issues of inadequate school facilities for rural black communities across the southeast. I'll save the topic of Rosenwald Schools for another post, but I will say that this program was founded in a time when public education funding for African Americans was basically non-existent in South Carolina and most of the southeast. A State Agent for Negro Schools was employed by the South Carolina Department of Education to inspect black schools and to advocate for their improvement. But black education remained an non-issue for many state officials. In my research, it isn't until the 1920's that I see true mention of any concern for the condition of African-American education in State Board of Education records. In a 1927 letter from the State High School Supervisor, J. Daniel, to the State Superintendent of Education, James H. Hope, Daniel stated that he was, "especially anxious to give the negro schools this year a rating and to keep a more accurate check than has heretofore been made." (This was excerpted from my National Register of Historic Places Nomination for Hopewell Rosenwald ).



From HistorySouth.org

The state and local school governments largely believed that the black communities should educate their own children and be responsible for a large amount of the funding. When the Rosenwald School Building Program was made available, new school facilities and funding were made available to replace older schools. To several black communities, the Building Program provided a schoolhouse where there had been none. Those communities were using private homes, churches, barns, and veritable shacks as schools. To Collier-Scott, when the Hopewell Rosenwald School was built (at the cost of $400), it wasn't just a new schoolhouse. It was a place where, "for the first time during our elementary school days we were warm and comfortable in school. We were in a learning atmosphere and were able to recieve a good elementary education." Hopewell Rosenwald School was a simple design that conformed to the One Teacher Community Plan (with small modifications). The schoolhouse contained three rooms: a large classroom, a small library/industrial room, and a storage closet. The large banking windows, common in most Rosewald Plans, were designed to let in the maximum amount of natural light.

Left to Right: Hopewell Rosenwald School ca. 1935-1952, SCDAH School Insurance Photographs and Hopewell in 2009 as listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Hopewell Rosenwald School was accepted into the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. Today, it is still standing by Hopewell Baptist Church and is used as a community center. After her time at Hopewell, Collier-Scott graduated high school in Augusta, Georgia and attended college. After receiving her M.A., she became a teacher and retired after 37 years. Today, she is active in preserving the history of African-American education in McCormick County and she has created a scholarship fund. Collier-Scott recently was honored with a local award for her philanthropy and community involvement. She firmly believes, even now, that "All that I am and ever hope to be I owe it to Hopewell."

 

School Identification...Finally!

I've finally indentified a school that I photographed  back in 2009. This school is my hallmark rural school-- the one you see featured in the blog heading.


Central School ca. 2009, photo by Haley Grant.

This building was the Central School, located in the Trenton/Johnston vicinity in Edgefield County. I'm not sure, at this time, when it was built, but the USGS map citation is from a 1935 soil conservation map. Also, it looks to me, in my experience with early 20th century schoolhouses, to have been built from 1920-1935. Future research will tell me more. I'm suspending my research into the Coleman Ridge School to take this one on. Why? A current photograph from the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor shows the roof caved in and it just fills me with a sense of urgency to find out more about this piece of our rural built environment before it vanishes.


Central School in 2013, photo by South Carolina Naitonal Heritage Corridor.

Part I On Rural SC Schoolhouses: The Country School Problem in Early 20th Century SC

 While I start my research on Coleman Ridge and Pryor Colored School, I wanted to post about the state of rural schools during the end of the 19th century and about the educational reform of the early 20th century—specifically on schoolhouse design reform—in SC.
 
 

To state it simply: the schools were in bad shape, both for white and African-American children (more on that in Part II). In the late 19^th to early 20^th century, many politicians, educators, and reformers in the U.S. waged a Progressive education reform campaign to improve the nation's educational system. This timely educational reform movement enabled educators across the country to work towards a cohesive public education experience that would effectively meet the future work force needs of a nation approaching increased industrialization and rising food costs. The school reform movement and corresponding rural school reform sought for changes in curriculums, redistricting, better materials, increased funding, and safer schoolhouse design.[1] The advocacy of schoolhouse design reform grew from what historian William W. Cutler describes as the “depressing, even unhealthful, condition of many public schools. It was unpleasant to work [or study] in buildings without adequate light, heat, air space, or sanitation.”^[2]

In South Carolina, the problem of rural schools was a prominent concern among both educators and the public. An 1897 State article on the Superintendent of Education’s annual report stated that 153 new schoolhouses were built in the 1896-1897 year. There was an overall improvement, according to Superintendent W.D. Mayfield (1890-1898), “in the class of [school]houses erected, but there is still much room for improvement…The houses should be made more comfortable and attractive and should be supplied with more and better furniture and school apparatus.”[3] The “country school problem” was even touted as one of the “most important [problems] of our civilization today.”[4] Curriculums were in need of a change; school materials such as up-to-date text books were not readily available; and the schoolhouses were in such bad condition or were so poorly designed that they were called “veritable fire traps” by one South Carolina architect.[5] Aside from being “fire traps,” the schools were simply not meeting the needs of their growing communities.

The School Improvement Act of 1905 was one of the first acts of South Carolina education legislation to be passed in the twentieth century and solidified the State’s rural school improvement mission. The Act detailed new financial aids available to county school districts through special taxes, fund raising, and profits through selling of old buildings and equipment specifically for the construction of suitable public schoolhouses.[6] According to the next State Superintendent of Education, O.B. Martin (1902-1908), “in enacting the school building law…the General Assembly showed a desire to build up the common schools…Greater appropriations will be made for our public schools as we strengthen our organization and perfect our system.”[7]

Organizations such as The Women’s Association for the Improvement of Rural Schools plus State approved aid provided funds for the much needed addition to or construction of rural schools.[8] State aid for high schools could be withheld if inspectors found the teaching to be inefficient or if the school did not adhere to the regulations of the State High School Board in curriculum or construction.[9] Observance to the regulations was policed by the individual County Superintendents of Education and the State High School Inspector and mandated in the General School Law of South Carolina.[10]

While the educational experience of rural South Carolina children was not improved overnight (especially for African-Americans), the national and rural educational reform movements of the early 20^th century were important catalysts. The United States Commissioner of Education, P. P. Claxton in 1917 stated that the whole of the schoolhouse experience should “be beautiful, clean and wholesome” because the “schoolroom, the schoolhouse and the school grounds constitute the best index to the degree of civilization and to the ideals of the community."[11] The educational reform movement lost much of its steam by the end of WWI, but the lasting effects of the national movement continued on a much smaller scale in rural communities.

List of 19^th and early 20^th century school design resources:

Henry Barnard, School Architecture or Contributions to the Improvement of Schoolhouses in the United States (New York: A.S. Barnes & Company, 1849), Google Books; Edmund March Wheelwright, School Architecture: A General treatise for the use of architects and others (Boston: Rogers and Manson, 1902), Google Books; William George Bruce, School Architecture: A handy manual for the use of architects and school authorities (Milwaukee: Johnson Service Co., 1906), Google Books; Fletcher Bascom Dresslar, American Schoolhouses (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911) and Rural Schoolhouses (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1914), both Google Books; John Dewey and Evelyn Dewey, Schools of To-morrow (New York: The Knickerbocker Press, 1915), Google Books; John Joseph Donovan, School Architecture: Principles and Practices (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1921), Google Books.  

 

Next in Part II: In Part II of the On Rural SC Schoolhouses post, I will talk about the condition of rural African-American schoolhouses in SC at the turn of the 19^th century and how the state was responding to the growing issue of inadequate schoolhouses for rural black communities. I will also talk about the Rosenwald School Building Fund and the experiences of one former SC Rosenwald School student, Georgia Collier Scott.

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[1] William W. Cutler, III,“Cathedral of Culture: The Schoolhouse in American Educational Thought and Practice since 1820,” History of Education Quarterly 29(1989): 5. School reform, especially design reform, was not a new idea. Earlier 19th century ideas in school design produced such schools as the Quincy plan which was designed for Boston’s Quincy Grammar School in 1847. The design deviated from one of the more common national standards that featured a large central room for use by all students and took the central room and divided it into smaller classrooms—giving teachers a more organized space in which to better instruct and discipline their pupils and enabling students an area of study better suited to concentration than distraction.
[2] Cutler, “Cathedral of Culture," 6-7.

[3] “Education in South Carolina: Annual Report of Superintendent of Education.” The State, December, 31, 1897.
[4] John J. McMahan, “The Country School Problem.” Speech delivered to the State Teacher’s Association, Harris Lithia, South Carolina. July 17, 1899. South Caroliniana Library, Columbia, South Carolina.
[5] Rudolph Edward Lee, “Convenient and Attractive School Buildings,” 7. Rudolph Edward Lee Papers, Clemson Univeristy Special Collection, Clemson University.
[6] O.B. Martin, School Improvement: Law, Designs, and Suggestions for Schoolhouses (Columbia, South Carolina: The State Company, 1905), 12-14.
[7] Martin, School Improvement, 12-14.
[8]Pamphlet issued from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, April, 1906, The Women’s Association for the Improvement of Rural Schools in South Carolina, South Caroliniana Library, Columbia, South Carolina. They aimed to “conquer the absurd idea that four bare walls and a few straight-back benches constitute a place suitable for any girl or boy of South Carolina to be kept for [several] hours a day.” Women’s [or Woman’s] Association for the Improvement of Rural Schools was started in 1902 by Winthrop College’s President Johnson for the senior class of that year.
[9] Meeting of March 21, 1908, Minutes and Attachments of the State Board of Education, 1905-1911, South Carolina Department of Education, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina. “No Aid will be given any high school unless said high school is taught in a safe and comfortable building.” High schools, at that time, encompassed grades 8^th to 11^th. Elementary schools went from 1^st to 7^th.  See also for an example: December 14, 1912 Board of Education meeting, report by State High School Inspector, requested Lynchburg, SC school district to take steps “by his district to provide a more adequate building for the school, if the high school appropriation is to be continued.” Minutes and Attachments of the State Board of Education, 1912-1917.
[10] Title XI Sect. 1719 “Duty to Visit Schools, etc.” and Sect. 1722 “Annual Report, etc. of County Superintendent,” General School Law of South Carolina, 1912, Containing Constitutional Provisions Relating to Education, Title [XI] Code of Laws 1912 on Public Instruction, Acts Relating to Education, 1912. Issued by State Department of Education, J. E. Swearingen, State Superintendent. Charlottesville, VA: The Michie Co., State Board of Education, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina, 14.
[11] P. P. Claxton, United States Commissioner of Education, quoted from Rudolph Edward Lee, “Convenient and Attractive School buildings,” 14.

Getting Started: Coleman Ridge and Pryor Colored

I am using this blog to highlight my time researching and site checking rural schoolhouses in South Carolina. This project is purely volunteer based and will be slow-going at first. Schools are picked at random, really, or by suggestion (RuralSchoolhouseSC@gmail.com). There will be three parts to my research process: 1. Find school 2. Site survey 3. Historical research. The Rural Schoolhouses of South Carolina Project is based on my love of the rural built environment and my love of schoolhouse architecture. These places matter to their communities, former students and teachers, and to our state's history. I want this blog to show how important these buildings are...and not just show how many times I get lost finding rural schools.
Currently, I am focusing my attention on two schools: Coleman Ridge School in Trenton, SC and Pryor Colored School in Chester, SC.

Coleman Ridge School, Trenton, SC:
A search through the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), gave me the historical location of the school. Located off of McCreight Rd. near Trenton and Johnston, SC, Coleman Ridge School is associated, at least in name, with Coleman Ridge Baptist Church, of the same location. A visit is in order because aerial images show two buildings near the school's historical site and I'd like to visually confirm the school. I will contact the church to get some additional information before I visit South Carolina Department of Archives and History (SCDAH).

The red baloon marks the historical location of Coleman Ridge School. U.S. Geological Survey through Google Maps.


Topographic maps from the U.S. Geological Survey also indicate the school was located here at least by 1939, the date from which the current topo is cited. U.S. Geological Survey through Google Maps.

Pryor Colored School, Chester, South Carolina:
A former Chester local and friend suggested a schoolhouse to me that is "on Hwy 9, outside of Chester, SE of town about 4 miles, left side of highway ... Not sure whether [it has an] historical marker, yet it was painted within past 10 years." I found it today using Google Street View (yes, that means I just Street Viewed down Hwy. 9 for a couple of miles!) and plan to site check the school soon.

Pryor Colored School as seen in Google Street View. Google Maps.

GNIS also indicated a Pryor Church, which is no longer standing, a few yards down Hwy. 9 from the schoolhouse.
ETA: Confirmed by local source that it is the Pryor Colored School and was built in 1898. She states that, "In the late '80s my family leased the property and grew corn / melons on it. We used the school for a fruit stand those summers--there was still a black board and remnants of the classroom environment inside. The state built the 4-lane which made the school right on the road." I really can't wait to visit this schoolhouse and do some research.

Above: An historic photo of Pryor Colored School, Chester County. School Insurance Photographs, 1935-1952, SCDAH.