Robert Smalls School
National Register Listing
Street Address:
316 Front St., Cheraw, SC (Chesterfield County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817713009
Description and Narrative:
Robert Smalls School, completed in 1953, is significant in the area of education for its association with the South Carolina “Equalization School” building program, a state initiative in the early 1950s to make schools for black children “separate but equal” to their white counterparts and in support of the practice of segregation. It served as an African-American school until it was desegregated in 1971. It is in fact, the only remaining example of the "separate but equal" schools in the Cheraw area, and indeed the only school building that predates 1965 remaining in the town of Cheraw. Robert Smalls School is also significant in the area of Architecture as an example of the architectural vision of Cheraw, Incorporated, a group of local leaders who sought to maintain Cheraw’s historic architecture and ensure that new designs were compatible, in the “colonial” or “ante-bellum” style, and according to plans prepared by the Florence, South Carolina, architectural firm of Hopkins, Baker & Gill. The work of Cheraw, Incorporated, was one of the earliest attempts in inland South Carolina to preserve “a sense of place” in a historic community. When it was constructed Robert Smalls School housed grades one through six. It was used as a school until new elementary and primary schools were constructed in the 1990s. Listed in the National Register March 4, 2014.
Period of Significance:
1953
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Architecture;Education
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
March 4 2014