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.