Abandoned schoolhouse in South Carolina

Hannah Rosenwald School, Newberry South Carolina

Date added: March 04, 2023 Categories:

Following emancipation at the end of the Civil War, newly freed slaves asserted their freedom by creating their own churches and seeking out education. In education, churches, charitable organizations, and the Freedmen's Bureau worked together to establish schools for the newly freed slaves in South Carolina. By the end of Reconstruction, 123,085 students were enrolled in South Carolina public schools, including 70,082 African-American students. In religion, several Northern denominations sent missionaries to found new churches as did several African-American denominations, predominantly the African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.) and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (A.M.E.Z.). In many cases, these newly established black churches also supported educational opportunities.

Hannah A.M.E. Church in Newberry County was founded during this period. Solomon Caldwell, a former slave, from Newberry County remembered that after the Civil War, "We had a big camp meeting sometimes at a log house dat was called 'Hannah's Church.' It was named for a n****r man of slavery time. He bought de land for de church when freedom come and give it to dem. Dis church is on de other side of Bush River, near Mr. Boulware's place." The original site of Hannah Church is indeed near Bush River on Hannah Church Road off of Deadfall Road close to where it intersects S.C. Highway 395. A cemetery remains on Hannah Church Road to indicate the approximate location of the old church building.

As early as 1869, Hannah Church sponsored a free school by providing a log building on its property. State records indicate a free school operating in Mendenhall Township (one of the names for this area) with a 10-month school year, running from January 25^th, 1869 to October 31^th, 1869. Another report (which requested more detail) indicates that the Free School in Mendenhall Township met in a wooden log building owned by Hannah Church that was in "not good" condition between April 1^st and June 21^st, 1870. That session sixty-five students were enrolled, primarily to learn reading, writing, and spelling. Another record from this period refers to "Hannah Church Free School."

Oral history indicates that Hannah School was a two-room school organized in the 1870s on a hill behind the old Hannah Church. It may be that the original free school met in the building for Hannah Church with an actual school house built in the 1870s. Originally, a black minister, Reverend Coaxsum, was the principal and Minnie Parker worked with him. Later Mr. Oscar Singleton was principal and his daughter, Lillian, worked with him.

The year 1877 signaled redemption for white South Carolinians, but for African-Americans, it signaled an increasing lack of interest in African-American education. The South Carolina Constitution of 1895 created a legal system of racially segregated schools at the same time that laws were disenfranchising blacks. This placed the control of racially segregated schools into the hands of white school boards across the state. As a result, African-American education suffered.

In the 1919-1920 school year, South Carolina created a $10,000 fund for the "Betterment of Negro Schools." This amount increased to $15,000 in the following year's budget. The requirements were that a school could not receive more money than it raised itself, nor more money than the local board of trustees gave. The fund also would not give more than $1.00 per pupil to any school. No school seems to have received more than $200.00 with less than $50.00 the most common amounts. In the 1919-20 school year, Hannah received $60.00; the following year in the 1920-21 school year, Hannah's Chapel school in Utopia District (#10) received $18.00 from the fund. It is unclear what these funds were used for, or how helpful they could be.

During the early twentieth century, several Northern philanthropies developed to support Southern black education including the General Education Board, the Slater Fund, the Jeanes Fund, and the Julius Rosenwald Fund. Of South Carolina's 46 counties, Newberry received the fourth highest amount of money from these programs. Between the school years of 1917-18 and 1927-28, Newberry County received $5,344.13 from the Jeanes Fund, $2,216.80 from the Slater Fund, $20,700 from the Rosenwald Fund, and $2,278.98 from the General Education Board. This totaled $30,539.91 in outside monies aiding Newberry County's African-American schools. Of the non-Rosenwald sources of money, the Jeanes Fund played the most significant role in the function of the Rosenwald Fund. The Jeanes Fund provided part of the salary for Jeanes Supervisors, who visited county schools "giving instruction in home industries and sanitation, encouraging the people of the neighborhood to improve their school conditions and conducting gardening clubs and other clubs for the improvement and betterment of the schools and neighborhoods." Newberry County had a Jeanes Fund supervisor, Dr. Ulysses S. Gallman, who served as a teacher and Jeanes Supervisor for forty-four years in the Newberry County Education System. As the Jeanes Supervisor, he was highly involved in using another important Northern philanthropy the Rosenwald Fund, to build better school buildings in Newberry County.

The Rosenwald Fund focused on providing monies for the construction of modern school buildings for rural African-American children in the South that could serve as models for all rural schools.

Twenty-six Rosenwald schools-the second-highest number in the state-were built in Newberry County. Hannah Rosenwald School, built during the 1924-1925 school year, replaced the older Hannah School. Known in Rosenwald School records as the "Utopia School" after the local community, Hannah Rosenwald School was built on four acres of land near Hannah A.M.E. Church, which relocated across the road from the school in 1952 (current sanctuary rebuilt in 1970 following a fire). The Rosenwald Fund donated $900, the African-American community donated $1000, and the public (both state and county) donated $2000 to build a three-teacher type school. Hannah Rosenwald School is architecturally important as representative of a three-teacher school with either a north or south orientation. Three-teacher schools were common in South Carolina, but most of them were built on an east-west orientation.

The cornerstone indicates that L.H. McNary, O.L. Singleton, and J.W. DeWalt were the members of the building committee. Members of Hannah AME, L.H. McNary, I.S. Burton, and E. Singley, were the trustees of the school.

Data from 1923-24, the school year before Hannah was built, indicates that Newberry County, along with the rest of South Carolina, had a significant need for a Rosenwald school. The African-American student population of Newberry County numbered 3,405 out of 6,775 total students, with 2,582 of those students in rural schools. Newberry County spent $5.30 per African-American student while spending $45.97 per white student. Based on county-wide averages, schools had 92 students enrolled, with 57 of those attending regularly. On average, there were 65 African-American students per teacher, with 40 attending regularly, while there were 26 enrolled white students per teacher, with 20 attending regularly.

Local history remembers Johnnie G. Singleton serving as the first principal with Oscar Singleton and Lillie Ritchie as the other two teachers. Oscar Singleton and Lillie Ritchie were followed by Naomi Stephens and Ophelia Bobo, who worked at Hannah until it closed. Local history also remembers Edward Floyd and M. Blackman Richard serving as teachers. Between 1933 and 1946, state records indicate the names of other teachers: G.J. Gallman (1933?-34 and 1945-46?), Horace B. Rikard (1935-41 and 1944-45?).

State records also provide information about enrollment, attendance, the grades taught, and school term length. These records show that Hannah suffered declining enrollment (by more than half) between 1933 and 1946. Hannah had three teachers until the 1941-42 school year when declining attendance resulted in the school district only hiring two teachers for Hannah. This was a common trend in Hannah's school district (Silverstreet similar decreases in enrollment. It was also apparently a common trend in Newberry County where 3,600 whites and 6,510 blacks were enrolled in 1917, but where 4,899 whites and 4,890 blacks were enrolled in 1929.

Hannah Rosenwald School, Newberry South Carolina

The school is remembered for having good basketball teams and softball teams. Hannah School closed in the 1960s when it was consolidated with the Newberry and Silverstreet schools.

Building Description

Hannah Rosenwald School, located on Deadfall Road near its intersection with S.C. Highway 395, gable-front linear building, oriented to the south. The building is balloon framed, set on an open brick pier foundation, and covered by a red metal shingle, gabled roof with exposed rafter tails. The building retains its rural setting and is located adjacent to the Hannah A.M.E. Church cemetery and to the north across the street from Hannah A.M.E. Church, the owner of the building. The entire building is clad with horizontal weatherboard siding. There are three chimneys along the gable line of the school.

The southern elevation (front facade) features a six-over-six window, a louvered vent under the gable, and a recessed entry area with a porch. In the recessed entry area are two side-by-side six-over-six windows, a set of double doors with two-over-two windows currently covered from the interior with plywood, and a side door into the front left portion. The wooden porch has four square wood post supports, simple wooden stairs leading onto it, and a gabled roof covered with the same material as the rest of the building.

Along the west elevation of the building are two banks of windows. The banks have been altered to hold six six-over-six windows. They were originally nine-over-nine windows, but the area where the top two rows of panes would be are now closed in, leaving space for the current six-over-six windows. Three of the areas where windows should be are covered over with plywood, but the window opening is still evident. The banks of windows indicate where two different classrooms were on the western side of the building.

Along the east elevation (from south to north) is a bank of three windows that were originally nine-over-nine, but have been changed the same way as the windows along the western elevation. These windows indicate where the industrial classroom was on the interior. Then there is a bank of three six-over-six windows that are placed higher on the wall. These windows indicate the position of the three cloakrooms. Finally, there is a bank of what were originally nine-over-nine windows. The top one-and-a-half panes are covered with plywood on the exterior. From the interior, the frames of the nine-over-nine windows are still evident. These windows indicate the third classroom in the interior. This is the only place where the original configuration survives.

The north elevation (rear facade) is a solid exterior wall with a door on the east side and two louvered vents underneath the gable.

A marble dedicatory tablet, with "ROSENWALD SCHOOL, ERECTED 1925," and the names of school officials, trustees and building committee members, is located in the entry hall of the building. The interior of the building reveals a three-classroom plan with wood floors, horizontal beaded board walls, and simple window and door trim. The openings between the classrooms indicate where blackboards once hung. As shown in the appendix, Hannah followed the standard interior plan for a three-teacher school to face north or south, which included three classrooms, three cloakrooms, an industrial room, and an entry hall. The interior blackboard panels and other pieces that separated the classrooms have been removed.

Physical integrity is generally good although many window panes have been broken out of their frames. The most substantial alterations are the changes to the window banks; however, the original window configuration is still evident from the interior and the exterior could easily be restored. The foundation piers appear to be reasonably sturdy although much of the mortar in several of them has deteriorated. Otherwise the structure seems to be sound and expresses the primary characteristics of a Rosenwald School.