Old school in South Carolina

Liberty Colored High School - Rosewood School, Liberty South Carolina

Date added: March 06, 2023 Categories:

The town of Liberty was established between 1873 and 1875, and incorporated in 1876, along the Air Line Railroad between Atlanta and Charlotte in the south central part of Pickens County. Formal education for blacks in Liberty was established as early as 1899 at New Hope Baptist Church, less than a mile southwest of the current building on SC Highway 93 (East Main Street). A wood frame school was erected adjacent to the church in 1900. This school was replaced ca. 1922 (possibly with assistance from the Julius Rosenwald Fund) with another wood frame building at the corner of SC 93 and Rosewood Street. It was destroyed by fire on December 27^th, 1935.

With money for education scarce during the Great Depression, South Carolina lacked the funds to construct new schools or repair existing facilities. Hundreds of schools in the state lacked basic water and toilet facilities, and the majority of wood-frame black schools were unpainted or unfinished. Without assistance from Federal New Deal era programs, much-needed school construction would not have happened. From 1936-1937, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) assisted with repairing, remodeling, and rebuilding 290 school buildings in South Carolina, including several black schools. By 1943, the WPA had built, added to, or improved over 2,000 schools in South Carolina, along the way raising the quality of facilities for all school children, black and white.

After fire destroyed the Liberty school in 1935, black students temporarily attended classes at New Hope Baptist Church and Robinson Chapel Methodist Church. A new brick school for blacks was erected in Liberty with federal assistance from the WPA in 1937. Additional funding came in the form of insurance money (replacement value of old school was $3,500.00) from the state's Sinking Fund Commission, and local contributions.

The new school was called Liberty Colored Junior High School and included grades one through nine. By 1945, the tenth and eleventh grades had been added and the name changed to Liberty Colored High School. In 1949, the school added the twelfth grade and was fully accredited. The school employed seven teachers that year with an enrollment of over 130 students. The school term had recently been extended to 180 days.

The new brick Liberty Colored High School was a significant improvement in facilities for black students in Pickens County. Large, well-lighted classrooms greeted the students who arrived for their first day at the new school in 1937. Classes in agriculture, carpentry, and home economics provided practical instruction. By the late 1940s, the school had a modestly equipped science laboratory and home economics room in the basement. The disparities inherent in segregated education, however, continued to put black students in the Liberty area at a disadvantage. The limited funds provided by state government were supplemented by donations from parents and the community. The Parent-Teacher Association purchased books for the school library. The "library" at Liberty Colored High was actually a series of small bookshelves in each classroom. Students built the bookshelves. Textbooks for the Colored school were often second-hand discards from the white school. Even janitorial supplies came from the white school in the form of used, worn brooms and mops.

The Liberty Colored High School was one of two high schools for blacks in Pickens County, serving Liberty, Norris, Central, Clemson, and rural areas in between. Students who lived too far from school to walk had to arrange their own transportation. Parents usually delivered their children to school from more distant locales, but in the late 1940s a bus service provided another option. J. D. Black, a future mayor of Liberty, started a private bus line. For a subscription fee, black students from Norris and Central could ride the bus to the school at Liberty. Black's bus service ran until the county school district began offering bus service ca. 1950.

The other black high school in Pickens County was Simpson in Easley. Liberty's school was the largest and most modern of the two until a new brick Simpson school was built in 1949. In 1955 the two high schools were consolidated into the new Clearview Colored High School in Easley. The old Liberty Colored High became an elementary school and was renamed Rosewood after the street where it was located. Rosewood Elementary School contained grades one through seven.

When segregation ended about 1970, Rosewood Elementary was gradually merged with the white Liberty Elementary. After Rosewood Elementary ceased to exist, the building was later renamed Rosewood Center and continued to be used by the Pickens County School District for special education classes plus other adult and teacher education programs into the 1990s.

In March 2001, the School District sold the school to the City of Liberty. In October 2001 the City began a renovation project for the purpose of converting the school into a municipal office complex. The plans called for major interior demolition and the addition of a new entrance wing. When a new mayor and council were elected in November 2001, they cancelled the project just after some interior walls had been demolished. The planned new entrance wing was not constructed, preserving the historic character of the exterior. Despite the loss of an interior wall separating two classrooms, the overall historic integrity of the building has not been lost. In 2002, the City agreed to lease the building to the Liberty First Baptist Church for use as a youth activity center. The church will make minor interior repairs (including the addition of restrooms) and maintain the historic character of the building.

Building Description

The Liberty Colored High School is located at the intersection of South Carolina Highway 93 (East Main Street) and Rosewood Street in the town of Liberty in Pickens County, South Carolina. The school's location is less than half a mile from the center of Liberty's downtown area. The school is surrounded by residential property and a small stand of trees to the north, separating it from a county sheriff and emergency services complex. Construction of the school was completed in 1937 on a lot that today comprises 1.38 acres. The main facade of the building faces SC 93. The school is situated at the rear of the lot, which is largely an asphalt parking lot in front, and a grassy playground area in the rear surrounded by a chain link fence.

The school is a one-story brick structure with a side-gable, asphalt-shingled roof and a small projecting wing at the south end which is the primary entrance to the building. The primary entrance faces SC 93 and has a front-facing gable that intersects the main roofline. A second entrance, also at the south end of the building, faces Rosewood Street. There is a third entrance at the opposite end of the building facing the tree line at the northern boundary of the property.

The primary entrance is a projecting wing with three brick arches, embellished with cast stone keys and imposts. A circular, louvered vent is set in the center of the facade above the center arch and also features cast stone keys. In alignment with the two outer arches are double-leaf doors capped by fanlight transoms. The doors each have windows of six panels. The second entrance (facing Rosewood Street), repeats the design and features of the primary entrance and projects from this end of the building. At this entrance, however, there is only a single set of double-leaf doors at the central arch, capped by a fanlight transom. There is also a bronze plaque at this entrance that reads "Built by Works Progress Administration 1935-1937". The north wall of the primary entrance, perpendicular to the main wing of the building, has a tripartite window with nine-over-nine light, double-hung wood sashes. The south wall of the entrance has a tripartite window flanked by paired windows, all with nine-over-nine light, double-hung wood sashes.

The length of the building, on the east and west sides, has somewhat irregular window fenestration patterns. The classrooms are lighted by tripartite windows flanked with a single window on each side. These windows are nine-over-nine light wood sashes. There are two narrow windows with six-over-six light wood sashes. At the north end of the building, paired windows, all with nine-over-nine sashes, flank the tripartite window.

The entrances at the south end of the school open into the auditorium. Original hardwood floors remain in the assembly space as well as on the stage at the west end of the auditorium. The original beaded board ceiling also survives with fluorescent lighting the only modern intrusion. The auditorium was historically used for assembly space and was later used for indoor athletic and recreational activities. The stage doubled as a dining area for students eating their lunches prepared in the kitchen behind the stage. The kitchen is no longer extant, but the area is still accessible through a doorway at the rear of the stage. A doorway on the south end of the stage provides access to the basement. A doorway on the north end provides access to a small corridor and office space.

The classroom wing is accessible from the auditorium via a four-step staircase through double doors. The classroom wing is perpendicular to the auditorium, running north to south. This wing has a central hall flanked by three classrooms on the east side, and a classroom and offices on the west side. Each classroom has two transom windows, still operable, to provide light and ventilation. Walls dividing two of the classrooms on the east side of the school were removed in the fall of 2001 in preparation to renovate the building for use as a municipal office complex. Those plans were cancelled and no further wall or partition removal has taken place. Beaded board ceilings remain throughout the classrooms and central hallway. Fluorescent lights are the only modern intrusion.

The walls that were removed in 2001 not only divided the classrooms, but also provided corridors to two separate stairways, one each on the east and west sides of the building, providing access to the basement. The basement contained separate girls and boys restrooms. In the 1950s, these restrooms were abandoned and the stairways were sealed. The former stairway corridors were converted to restroom facilities. The fixtures have since been removed and the building currently has no functioning restrooms. Restrooms will be restored to the building in 2002 as part of interior renovations to make the building functional as a youth center.

The basement is also accessible by exterior stairways below grade on the east and west sides of the building. These below grade entrances have been locked and closed off for many years. The basement is also accessible by a doorway on the south end of the building near the secondary entrance on Rosewood Street. The basement is an unfinished space and is cluttered with ductwork for a modern climate control system.

In 2002, the owner of the building, the City of Liberty, leased the school to Liberty First Baptist Church for use as a youth activity center. The church plans minor interior renovations in keeping with the historic character of the building.