Cherry Hill School

Cherry Hill School is a historic school for African-American students located at Hilton Head Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina. It was the first separate school building for African-American students on the island.

Cherry Hill School
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	210 Dillon Rd. Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Coordinates	32°14′05″N 80°41′28″W
Area	less than one acre
Built	c. 1937 (1937)
Architectural style	Vernacular
NRHP reference No.	12000965[1]
Added to NRHP	November 21, 2012

Architecture

is a simple, gable-front rectangular one-room frame and weatherboard-sided schoolhouse on an open brick-pier foundation.

History

The community that built and helped maintain the school consisted of the descendants of the former-slave town of Mitchelville, the first community to mandate education in the South. The community raised the funds to buy land for the school building.^[2] The building would replace an earlier Cherry Hill School, which held its classes at St. James parsonage.^[2]

The school was built about 1937.^[2] It was an elementary school with one teacher that served about 30 students annually. When it opened it taught grades 1–5; 6th grade was added in the 1938 school year.^[2]

The school operated until all African-American children attended the new consolidated Hilton Head Elementary School in 1954.^[3] The St. James Baptist Church purchased the school in 1956, and used the building as a multi-purpose space.^[3] The church extended and renovated the building in 1984.^[4][5]

It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.^[1] In 2013 a historical marker was erected near the building.^[6]

In 2019 plans were announced to relocate the school as part of an expansion for the Hilton Head Airport.^[7]

References

1. "National Register of Historic Places Listings". Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 11/19/12 through 11/23/12. National Park Service. 2012-11-30.
2. "Cherry Hill School". The Green Book of South Carolina. Retrieved 2023-02-01.
3. Mahan, Sally (30 July 2016). "30 Years of Schools". Hilton Head Monthly. Retrieved 2023-02-01.
4. "Cherry Hill School, Beaufort County (210 Dillon Rd., Hilton Head Island)". National Register Properties in South Carolina. South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
5. Francetta J. White and JoAnn Zeise (September 2012). "Cherry Hill School" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places nomination. NRHP. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
6. "State marker honors historic Cherry Hill School on Hilton Head". The Island Packet. 20 September 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
7. "'The church was there first': Hilton Head historic sites being moved for airport expansion". The Island Packet. 29 March 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2023.