John De La Howe School

National Register Listing

Street Address:

Off South Carolina Highway 81, 9 miles Northwest of McCormick, SC

Alternate Name:

Lethe Agricultural Seminary Site

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NRHP Nomination

Record Number:

S10817733020

Description and Narrative:

Dr. John De La Howe came to America in 1760 with a group of some 200 French Protestant Huguenots. In his will, De La Howe entrusted his estate, a land grant from King George III, to the Agricultural Society of South Carolina for the purpose of setting up an Agricultural Farm School. Thus, in 1797 Lethe Agricultural Seminary was founded as a home and training school for boys and girls whose parents were dead or incapable of caring for them. In 1918 the school was converted into a state institution for the training and care of neglected children from across the state, and its named changed to the John De La Howe School. The School is one of the first examples of individual philanthropy in the history of childcaring institutions in the United States and is the second oldest institution in the Carolinas. The 1447-acre property contains the historic sites of the eighteenth century Lethe Plantation, the Lethe Agricultural Seminary, and the tomb of Dr. De La Howe, the original owner of the plantation and benefactor of the school. The present twentieth century buildings are not significant, although the institution of the John De La Howe School is of historic significance since it evolved from the eighteenth century Lethe School. Listed in the National Register June 5, 1970.

Period of Significance:

18th century;19th century;20th century;1797

Level of Significance:

State

Area of Significance:

Agriculture;Conservation;Education;Social History

National Register Determination:

listed

Date of Certification:

June 5 1970

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