Born out of a Booker T. Washington initiative, Retreat Rosenwald School provided African Americans in Westminster, South Carolina, with an education for more than two decades. It was one of more than 5,000 schools built in the early 1900s to meet the needs of thousands of students in rural southern states affected by segregation.
Motivated by his belief that “all the other pleasures in life seem to wear out, but the pleasure of helping others in distress never dies,” Rosenwald established a fund in his name to assist in the construction of schools. The school in Westminster that bears his name is one of 500 schools in South Carolina constructed in the 1920s. Rosenwald donated $700 toward the construction cost of the school, while local black residents raised another $1,600 to complete and furnish the building.
It was built as a one-story, clapboard, two-room schoolhouse and painted white. Two teachers were hired to teach in two classrooms of about 50 students annually in first through seventh grades. The school’s middle entryway section was considered an “industrial” room to train students in various tasks and trades. The school also included a small kitchen. Woodstoves heated the rooms and enabled meals to be cooked and served.
Ongoing History
After Retreat Rosenwald School closed in 1950, it was sold to Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, which shares the same property as the school. For many years the school was used as a community building. Families who lost their homes to fire were also temporarily housed at the school.
Currently, the school is a living history museum that displays artifacts from Retreat Rosenwald School and the early 20th-century. It also offers periodic educational lectures and demonstrations to local schoolchildren and the public. It’s one of only about 40 historic Rosenwald-funded schools still standing in South Carolina.
Although it was in disrepair until a restoration project began in 2005, the circa 1924 Retreat Rosenwald School in rural Oconee County—a little over an hour’s drive from the city of Greenville—was completely restored by 2021. In the meantime, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
For the school’s 100-year anniversary, a student group at Clemson University created a film about its history; included are interviews of individuals who attended the school as children. The video is posted on the official Retreat Rosenwald School website.
A historic photo of the students at Retreat Rosenwald School. Rosenwald School
Located just off South Carolina Hwy 24, the school is also an official site on the Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail, which exhibits hand-painted quilt squares on historic buildings, along with signs on the building’s exterior that explains the origin of the quilt square.
