I grew up in Spartanburg and decided to look for old photos in public domain books. It pains me that Spartanburg got rid of the building.
The above building replaced this one.
Reference: Landrum, J. B. (1900). History of Spartanburg County. The Franklin Printing and Publishing Company.
Built in 1893, the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany is located just off downtown Spartanburg. It’s one of the few Black Episcopal congregations left in the South. Prior to the pandemic, The State wrote an article on how the congregation continues to shrink. At the time of the article, six people were in attendance at the service covered by the newspaper.
The Brooklyn School is a Rosenwald School affiliated with the Brooklyn CME Church in northern Spartanburg County. Built in 1928, this two-teacher type school cost $3016 to build. Since I first photographed this school, it has rapidly deteriorated. This is the last known Rosenwald standing in Spartanburg County.
Tax records indicate this home was built in 1800. During the 1900s, I was told it was used as the mill supervisor’s house. I am currently looking for more information on the house.
The Marysville School educated the Black schoolchildren of the families who worked at the surrounding mills. Built in 1915, the school was in use until 1954. The three-room schoolhouse was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
In Spartanburg, South Carolina’s Greenlawn Cemetery, there is an impressive monument, sculpted by Bernard Zimmerman , called “The Wonder of Life.” Commissioned by the cemetery, it’s one of the largest monuments I’ve seen in a lawn cemetery. Each sculpted figure (18 in total) represents different aspects of life. It was restored a a few years ago, and the trees that surrounded it were removed.
