Pine Street School
National Register Listing
Street Address:
500 South Pine St., Spartanburg, SC (Spartanburg County)
Alternate Name:
Pine Street Elementary School
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817742074
Description and Narrative:
The Pine Street Elementary school was constructed in 1928-1929 to serve the residents of the Converse Heights neighborhood in Spartanburg. The present school building represents three major building campaigns: the original, two-story, roughly L-shaped, Beaux-Arts building with facades on Boyd and Pine streets constructed in 1928-29; a one-story classroom wing extending east from the historic northern elevation constructed in 1956; and a large two-story addition extending to the east of the historic Pine Street façade, with a one-story extension to the rear of this elevation constructed between 1999 and 2001. Nominated under both Criterion A in the area of education and Criterion C in the area of architecture, the period of significance for the school extends from its original construction in 1928 to 1956, when classroom space and a new cafeteria were added to the complex. The original design was influenced by the new South Carolina school building code of 1924, which was written following a fire at the Cleveland School in Kershaw in 1923 that killed seventy-seven people. Charles Coker Wilson, who was the architect for the Pine Street School, was also a contributing author to the 1923 building code and deployed his ideas about proper school construction in the design of the Pine Street School. Corridors were between nine and eleven feet wide, no room was more than eighty feet from an exit, and the stair towers were designed to prevent smoke from migrating between floors. The building was also constructed of fireproof materials, with all outside walls and corridor partitions built of masonry construction. The floors and roofs were also constructed with trussed steel bar joists overlaid with two inch concrete slabs reinforced with wire fabric and all stairs, landings, and vestibule floors were constructed of solid reinforced concrete. Wilson described his own design as “simple with a mildly modernistic touch.” The design contains elements of Beaux Arts architecture popular between 1885 and 1930 with its monumental massing, symmetrical facades, classically-inspired entrance, which Wilson called a loggia, and accented cornice line. These elements are also somewhat stylized, reflecting what Wilson considered a modern approach to classical forms. Listed in the National Register October 17, 2016.
Period of Significance:
1928 – 1956;1928 – 1929
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Architecture;Education
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
October 17 2016
