Former School for African American Students in SC Closed 1956

Catawba Rosenwald School - Liberty Hill School, Catawba South Carolina

Date added: November 14, 2024

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South Carolina
School

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The Catawba School was built in 1924-25 to serve the African-American community in southeastern York County, South Carolina. It was known as the Catawba School on official lists of Rosenwald schools, but is generally known as the Liberty Hill School locally because of its association with Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church nearby. It was one of twenty schools built in York County with funds from the Rosenwald program between 1917 and 1932. Of these schools, only two, the Catawba Rosenwald School and the Carroll Rosenwald School, are known to be extant.

The Catawba School was built with the assistance of the Julius Rosenwald Fund. This program provided matching funds to local communities and school districts to build schools for African-American students in an attempt to begin to provide a more equal educational experience.

The provision of education in South Carolina and in York County has been inherently unequal for white and African-American children. For white students in the period before the Civil War, there were scattered academies, usually associated with churches and using ministers as the professors. The most outstanding academy in York County was Ebenezer Academy, located in the village of Ebenezerville (now a part of Rock Hill) and established prior to 1820. The county seat of Yorkville supported the Yorkville Female College (1853) and the Kings Mountain Military Academy (1855). These academies served the more wealthy white families that could afford to pay tuition. In 1854, the Pine Grove Academy was established in the village of Rock Hill, which was established along the railroad in 1852. The academy had a board of directors and was a community school not affiliated with a church. It operated until about 1870, when other schools were being operated in Rock Hill. The Presbyterian High School was established in Rock Hill in the 1880s on land that is now part of the Winthrop University campus. The Yorkville Female College was incorporated into the more modern McCelvey Center, and the Presbyterian High School was incorporated into the Withers Building (Winthrop Training School). It was not until 1888 that the first public school in eastern York County was established, the Rock Hill Graded School. Gradually, other public schools for white students were established throughout the county, including in the Catawba area. An article in the Yorkville Enquirer on September 1^st, 1889 stated, "A comfortable school building was erected by a Rock Hill merchant, near Catawba Junction, at a cost of $600. On completion, the building was presented to the Board of Trustees sometime during the year 1889 and was called the Catawba School." There were eventually three schools with this name. The white Catawba School was later joined by an African-American school near the village of Catawba. In 1925, when the Rosenwald school was built, it also took the name Catawba School in the Rosenwald listings for the nearest post office. Locally, the Rosenwald Catawba School was always called Liberty Hill School.

Educational opportunities for African-American children were delayed by the prohibitions on teaching slaves to read and write. After the Civil War, some limited schools for black children were established in eastern York County by the newly independent African-American churches. Hermon Presbyterian Church, which was begun in 1869 in Rock Hill, was operating a school for black children under the Rev. A. J. Rainey by 1886. In 1884, St. Paul's Episcopal Church was organized for black Episcopalians under the leadership of Henry Toole, Rock Hill's first barber. It operated a trade school and day school under W. L. Millichamps. There were also graded schools affiliated with Clinton College and Friendship Junior College in Rock Hill. These early opportunities for education for African-American children from the Catawba community were limited mostly to those who could board in Rock Hill with relatives, as transportation was limited.

By the early twentieth century, a public school system had been implemented for African-American students; however the public financial support and the facilities provided were greatly inferior to those provided for white schools. This disparity can be documented by comparing funding for public schools. While the number of black and white students was nearly equal in 1922, the state spent $1,970,944 on white schools and only $187,033 on black schools. The amount spent on furniture and repairs for the same year was $188,155 for white schools and $22,983 for black schools. White students received nearly ninety percent of the state funds.

Given this climate of neglect, the Julius Rosenwald Fund had a significant impact on education in South Carolina. By providing funding for new schools and requiring a local match, the Rosenwald program elevated the importance of education in local African-American communities across the south. Local communities were spurred into action to raise funds for new schools and to support the continued operation of those schools. The new educational facilities also encouraged an increased level of public funding to support he schools for African-American children. In 1917, the year the Rosenwald Fund was established, the yearly average instructional cost per black student in South Carolina was $2.86. Ten years later, the figure had increased to $11.06, and the number of available black teachers had increased from 3,100 to 4,300. In an annual report in 1925, the year the Catawba School was built, York County Superintendent of Education John E. Carrott reported that the average county expenditures for the 1924-25 school year were $75.25 for white students and $40.43 for African American students. The Catawba School, like the 480 other Rosenwald schools built in South Carolina between 1917 and 1932, played an important role in preparing African-American children for the future.

Records at the Rock Hill School District office show that in the early 1950s, plans to consolidate schools were underway to provide better and larger facilities for the African American students. A report from 1953 lists eight African American schools which should be abandoned, including Liberty Hill (Catawba). At that point, it had 72 students and three teachers. There was also a Black school nearby in Catawba, with one teacher and 20 pupils. The Catawba School closed in 1956 and students were transferred to a new consolidated African-American school in nearby Lesslie, Hillcrest Elementary. The school building, although still owned by Rock Hill School District #3, has been vacant since that time. Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church signed a maintenance agreement with the school district and has provided periodic maintenance for the building since 1956.

About 1960, the school was moved on the same lot to accommodate the widening of US Highway 21 (South Anderson Road). The building was moved approximately 200 feet.

Building Description

The Catawba School is a two-room frame school building located at 3071 South Anderson Road (US Hwy. 21) at its intersection with Sam Walker Road, approximately ten miles south of Rock Hill and three miles southwest of Catawba. The building is located on a four-acre parcel of land owned by the Rock Hill School District #3. It was built in 1924-25 as a Rosenwald School to Plan # 20 of the Rosenwald plan book as a two-teacher rural school. The local builder is unknown. The Rosenwald fund contributed $700 of the total cost of $2,800. The building faces north on the property. The surroundings include woods, vacant land, and single-family homes. The school served the African-American community in the Catawba area of York County from its opening in 1925 until 1956, when it was closed. The building has been vacant since then. About 1960, the school building was moved on the same piece of property to accommodate the widening of South Anderson Road. The Catawba Rosenwald School was one of twenty schools built under the program in York County between 1917 and 1932, and one of only two extant (the Carroll Rosenwald School near Rock Hill is the other) in the county.

The Catawba School is a one-story wood frame building with a brick pier foundation. The roof is composite shingle and has end gables with a projecting front gable over an extension on the facade. The two recessed entrances are on either side of the front extension and are covered by simple shed roofs with supporting brackets. The roof rafters are exposed on all eaves, reflecting the influence of the Craftsman style. There is a central chimney that accommodated a wood stove for heat and cooking. The facade has paired windows beside the two entrances and the central extension has four windows. The windows on the front facade of the building appear to have been replaced. The end walls have no fenestration, with only louvered attic vent windows at the tops of the gables. The rear of the building has eight windows, arranged in pairs. These windows appear to be original, with nine over nine lights. Some window panes are missing.

On the south side of the property behind the school is a single hole privy with a simple shed roof. It is in a very deteriorated condition. A few yards to the east of the school is a modern storage shed.

The interior of the Catawba School is a typical two-teacher school from Rosenwald Plan number 20. The original flooring is in place, as are some of the original wood doors with transoms. The walls of narrow wood boards are painted white, while the unadorned moldings and surrounds are brown. The ceilings are white tongue and groove sheathing. The original detachable dividing wall between the two main classrooms has been removed. Each classroom has a cloakroom. The projecting wing in the front originally housed an industrial training room. This has been used for other purposes over the years, including a kitchen when meals were served to the school children.

The Catawba School is located in a rural setting approximately ten miles south of Rock Hill. It took its name from the village of Catawba. For most of its history, the school was known locally as the Liberty Hill School. This was because the Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church is located just west of the school and it was closely associated with the school. The school is on the east side of US Highway 21 (South Anderson Road). This highway was originally a two-lane road, but was widened about 1960 into a divided four-lane highway. When this work was done, the school building was relocated on its four-acre lot to avoid conflict with the highway construction. The building was originally located near the north end of the property facing west toward US Highway 21. It was moved approximately 200 feet to the south side of the property and now faces north. The surroundings of the school remain relatively rural in nature, although in recent decades a number of homes have been built on large lots along US Highway 21.