Kennedy Street School, Anderson South Carolina

Date added: September 26, 2023 Categories:

A site on West Market Street was selected for the first public school and Professor W. H. Moncrief of Clemson College headed the new school. The school opened on 1 October 1896 with three hundred eighty students. After three years Moncrief resigned and on 16^th May 1898, Thomas C Walton took his place. The enrollment grew so rapidly that a new school building was built on North Fant Street. This building burned in 1904 and the students were sent back to West Market Street school. In the 1918 publication entitled Public Schools of Anderson County by Luego Gunter, State Supervisor of Rural Schools, he makes these comments about the West Market School. "It was erected many years ago when architects paid more attention to an attractive exterior, with beautiful angles and projections, than to comfortable and sanitary accommodation on the inside for the pupils." The Kennedy Street school was added to the Anderson School system in 1913 along with the Glenn Street, Southside School, and the East Whitner School. Luego Gunter, State Supervisor of Rural Schools also comments about the Kennedy Street School in his 1918 publication." Kennedy Street is one of the most imposing buildings of the entire number in the district. Whether large or small, these four buildings recently erected have been well planned and conform to the modern requirements for schoolhouses in every essential particular. The classrooms are of a standard size and proportions, and the windows so arranged that light enters from the left and rear of the pupils. These buildings have been comfortably and adequately furnished and are well equipped for school work." Manufacturers Record of 11^th September 1913 has an entry for the Kennedy Street School and it reads: S.C., Anderson-J. A. Brock, Chairman. Trustees, let contract at $14,980 to Jordan-Munn Co., Greenville, to erect Kennedy Street school; red brick: tin roof: steam heat; at $4485 J.L. Hembree to erect E. Whitner Street School; 1 story; colonial style; brick veneer; tin roof; plans by J.H. Casey.

About 1913 South Carolina educators wanted a law to make school attendance compulsory. They had a bill introduced into the South Carolina Legislature. This law went into effect on 15^th July 1915. The law stated "all children between the ages of eight and fourteen years of age to attend the local public school in the district in which he resides."

The architecture of the Kennedy Street School is note worthy for the quality of its brick work. The exterior walls are laid in Flemish bond with flashed headers. Accent panels composed of header and sailor courses enclosing rectangular fields of Flemish bond further enlivening the masonry. Historic photos indicate the school originally had double half-glass muntined doors at its entrance, but today it has an aluminum replacement. The school underwent a renovation in the 1950s, and the current lighting dates from that period. The well-molded and transomed interior doorways, cross corridors, and plaster archways add style to the interior architecture. In 1960, a detached auditorium was built, it is an excellent example in the International style. It was designed by John Linley (1916-1996), a local architect who later became a longtime distinguished professor of architecture and landscape architecture at the University of Georgia. It is a particularly distinctive modern design that takes its cue from many of the architectural elements on the older school building on the property. Linley's use of color, texture, materials, and light in the building's design make it an example of modern architecture.

The Digital Library of Georgia collection of photos has an excellent capsule biography of Linley's career:

Inspired by his father's construction business in Anderson, South Carolina, John W. Linley (1916-1996) graduated from Clemson College in 1938 with a B.S. in Architecture and went on to earn his M.F.A. in Architecture from Princeton University in 1945. Before becoming a professor for the University of Georgia's School of Environmental Design in 1963, he practiced professionally for many years by designing residences and office buildings.

Linley's architectural career only lasted from the early 1940s until the late 1950s. Some of his work in South Carolina included residences for Home Realty Construction: John Linley, Sr., and Bill McCown. He did a home for Charles Martin in Belton. His favorite architect was Frank Llyod Wright and many of his homes followed Wright's principles. One in Anderson, S.C. is in Hammett Acres called the Charles Stewart Haynes house. Linley also designed some of the first buildings at Tri-County Tech and the Anderson County Jail. He designed a medical building for Dr. Sims and Dr. Hearn in 1957 and in 1956 bids were received for the North Fant Street School in Anderson.

Joseph Huntley Casey (1875-1928), a native of Binghamton, New York, studied architecture through the International Correspondence School. He worked for Green & Wicks and Lansing & Beierel, both Buffalo architectural firms before coming to Anderson, SC around 1900. He formed a partnership with Charles W. Fant around 1913 and the firm of Casey and Fact practiced until Casey's death in Baltimore in 1928. Casey also designed the 1904 Watson Hotel in Anderson, the Anderson Carnegie Free Library of 1905, Anderson Hospital of 1907, the Honea Path Carnegie Free Library of 1907, numerous Anderson residences, Anderson business and many upstate churches and educational buildings.

Building Description

The Kennedy Street School is a two-story red brick Commercial style educational building embellished with classical revival details with a basement and is located at the northeast corner of East Franklin Street and Kennedy Street in Anderson, South Carolina. The school site contains three buildings, the 1913 school with circa 1938-1948 wings, a small modern storage shed, and an auditorium built in 1960. The 1913 school building was designed by architect Joseph Huntley Casey, (1875-1928) of Anderson, S. C. The 1960 auditorium is the work of architect John Linley, (1916-1998) also of Anderson, S. C. Later in his career, Linley was a professor of environmental design at the University of Georgia. Today the buildings are vacant and are soon to be redeveloped as a residential facility for the elderly.

The plan of the 1913 section of the Kennedy Street School covers a space 55'-0 deep x 105'-0" wide. The two added 1938-1948 wings are each 27'-0" wide x 30'-0" deep and are aligned with the back of the original school. The auditorium building of 1960 is 45'-0" wide and is 105'-0" deep. Steven Brown, Head, University Archives & Records Management; Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library; Ilah Dunlap Little Library; University of Georgia researched the Linley's architectural practice files held there. He states: "Linley's private practice files did contain a folder on the project, but it only contains cost breakdowns. It reveals that the project was bid around April 27^th, 1960. Bidding involved the auditorium, stage & dressing rooms, boiler room, covered walks and porches on both the old and new buildings. At the time, his firm apparently was also involved in constructing an auditorium at the Southside School as well."

The Kennedy Street School's (south) elevation consists of a five-part plan with Baroque massing. The three central bays date to 1913 and the flanking wings date 1938-1948. Charles W. Fant, Jr., an Anderson architect, attended the school from 1932-1938 and he stated in an August 2006 interview "The wings were not on the school during my years of attendance." The wings do appear on the 1948 Sanborn Insurance Map.

The central arched, key stoned and transomed entry is accessed by granite steps onto a shallow terrace. The central first-floor double door entry gives access to the interior corridor system and is flanked on each side by an arched, key stoned and transomed paired four over one double hung window. The left window is flanked on the left by a rectangular double hung four over one window. The right window is flanked on the right by a rectangular double hung four over one window.

On the second floor above the three arched elements is a paired double hung four over one window. These elements are flanked by a single rectangular four over one double-hung window. The 1913 projecting wings are each three window bays wide and consist of paired double-hung six-over-one windows on the first and second floors. There is a rectangular decorative brick panel between each on the three first and second-floor paired windows. Above the second floor is a heavily projecting wooden cornice supported by classical wooden brackets. The brackets are paired at the corners of the projecting wings and a single bracket is placed between each second floor window. The roof of the school is a hipped roof made of standing seamed metal with three arch-topped vents located over the three main elements of the central mass. Decorative brickwork consists of Flemish bond face brick, decorative rectangular brick panels, a soldier course at the first-floor level and a horizontal belt course at the sills of the second-floor windows.

The Kennedy Street elevation of the 1938-1948 left and right-wing additions are large fields of Flemish bond brickwork decorated with a soldier course at the first-floor level and a horizontal belt course at the sills of the second-floor windows. Each wing has an arched and key-stoned entryway at grade which accesses the east and west staircases. A pair of four-over-one double windows are located at the landings of the stairways and are transomed. The heavily projecting wooden cornice is supported by paired classical wooden brackets at the corners and four additional single brackets in the direction of the central mass. The hipped roofs of the wings are also made of standing seamed metal. The right wing has a circa 1960 aluminum canopy connecting to the 1960 modern-style canopy designed by John Linley.

The East Franklin Street elevation (West) of the building consists of two components. The two components are, the 1938-1948 projecting two-story wing on the left and the 1913 two-story classroom element on the right. The 1938-1948 projecting wing is three window bays wide and consists of paired double-hung six-over-one windows on the first and second floors. There is a rectangular decorative brick panel between each on the three first and second-floor paired windows. Above the second floor is a heavily projecting wooden cornice supported by classical wooden brackets.

The brackets are paired at the corners of the projecting wings and placed between each second floor window is a single bracket. The right element consists of two rectangular six-over-one windows on each floor. Above the second floor is a heavily projecting wooden cornice supported by classical wooden brackets. The brackets are paired at the corners of the projecting wings and are paired between the two second-floor windows.

The east elevation of the building consists of three components. The three components are the 1913 two-story classroom element on the left, the 1938-1948 projecting two-story wing in the middle, and the 1950's one-story cafeteria wing on the right. The cafeteria wing does not show on the 1948 Sanborn Map.

The 1938-1948 projecting wing is three window bays wide and consists of paired double-hung six-over-one windows on the first and second floors. There is a rectangular decorative brick panel between each on the three first and second-floor paired windows. Above the second floor is a heavily projecting wooden cornice supported by classical wooden brackets. The brackets are paired at the corners of the projecting wings and placed between each second floor window is a single bracket. The left 1913 classroom wing consists of two rectangular six-over-one windows on each floor. Above the second floor is a heavily projecting wooden cornice supported by classical wooden brackets. The brackets are paired at the corners of the projecting wings and are paired between the two second-floor windows. The one-story cafeteria wing of red face brick in common bond has six double metal windows, a door with a stoop and a single metal window. The north facade gable end of the cafeteria wing has two small metal windows and a vent. The west elevation of the cafeteria wing has two single metal windows, three double metal windows, and a double aluminum entry door. This wing is shingled in composition shingles.

The back facade (north) is 11 window bays wide with a stoop covered half glassed two paneled double door on the first floor and is 14 window bays wide on the second floor. The window pattern on the first is, from left to right, 2 paired six-over-one windows, one four-over-one window, four single six-over-one windows, one four-over-one window, and three paired six-over-one windows. On the second floor, there are, from left to right, one paired four over one window, three paired six over one windows, one four-over-one window, four six-over-one windows, one four-over-one window three paired six-over-one windows and a paired four-over-one window.

Above the second floor is a heavily projecting wooden cornice supported by classical wooden brackets paired at the corners. Decorative brickwork consists of Flemish bond face brick and a horizontal belt course at the sills of the second-floor windows. The roof of the school is a hipped roof made of standing seamed metal with three arch-topped vents located on the center of the back facade. A boiler room chimney is located between the fifth and sixth second-floor window bays from the right. There are four horizontal windows that admit light into the school's restrooms located in the basement.

The auditorium building located at the intersection of Kennedy Street and Burts Street is in the Modern style. The Kennedy Street elevation (South) consists of a single plane of two-fifths red brick and three-fifths polished concrete block. A central metal full glass double door gives access to the auditorium space. A covered porch of slender steel columns supporting a glue-laminated wooden beam covers about two-thirds of the left side of this facade. A flag pole is wall-mounted on the right hand side of the elevation and the roof overhang is cut back on each side of the flag pole. A concrete walkway comes from Burts Street and connects to a walk the goes to the north on the left side of this elevation and connects to a covered walkway that connects this building with the 1938-1948 wing of the main school building. A planting bed is defined in concrete curbing at the porch roof area. The covered walkway is two roof bays long and is supported on the front side by four slender round metal columns which support two glue-laminated wood beams with metal decorated beam ends and on the back side by two slender round metal columns and two 8" x 12" red brick columns which support two glue-laminated wood beams with metal-decorated beam ends. The roof deck is made up of lightweight wood fiber and concrete panels and is topped with built-up roofing.

The Burts Street elevation (East) consists of two elements, a flat plane of red common bond brick expressing the auditorium area and a projecting bay indicating the stage/dressing room area. The auditorium plane has five vertically proportioned metal awning window bays and a double door near the stage projection. Glue-laminated beams rest on red brick laid in common bond load-bearing walls and the voids between them are filled with glass block to indicate their non-load-bearing nature. The beam ends are wrapped in metal and a red painted reveal runs vertically up the beam. There are six bays in the auditorium roof and two bays in the stage/ dressing room area. The ends of the glue laminated beams are reduced in height by half as they leave the bearing point of the wall and support the flat roof deck plane.

The North elevation is a single flat plane of red brick in common bond with a louvered door on the left and eight vertically proportioned metal awning windows with concrete sills to the right. A glue-laminated beam is setting atop the masonry wall and the flat roof plane cantilevers out about three feet.

The West elevation consists of eight roof bays. The wall below the roof consists of a flat plane of red common bond brick six roof bays to the left and a polished concrete block section two roof bays wide to the right. The auditorium plane has two vertically proportioned metal awning window bays in the block section, two vertically proportioned metal awning window bays in the brick section and a double half-glass door near the stage area. Glue laminated beams rest on red brick laid in common bond/ polished concrete block load-bearing walls and the voids between them are filled with glass block to indicate their non-load-bearing nature. The ends of the glue laminated beams are reduced in height by half as they leave the bearing point of the wall and support the flat roof deck plane. The beam ends are wrapped in metal and a red painted reveal runs vertically up the beam.

The roof deck on all the elevations is made up of lightweight wood fiber and concrete panels.

On the site there is a deep concrete drainage way and a red brick retaining wall between the 1913 building and the 1960 auditorium building. The Kennedy Street curb line is bordered by a granite retaining wall and a set of red brick arched winged concrete steps lead to the central doorway of the 1913 building. In back of the 1913 building is an area way about 10 feet to the north defined by a low granite retaining wall. To the north of the wall is the playground and to the east and behind the 1950's cafeteria wing is a parking lot.

A 20x8' plywood-clad, flat-roofed shed (c 1970s) sits adjacent to the school.