Lakeview School

National Register Listing

Street Address:

1218 Batchelor St., West Columbia, SC (Lexington County)

Alternate Name:

Northside Middle School, Brookland-Lakeview Empowerment Center

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NRHP Nomination

Record Number:

S10817732063

Description and Narrative:

Lakeview School is locally significant for its association with African American education in West Columbia and with the South Carolina equalization program, a state-led effort in the 1950s and 1960s to forestall racial integration by upgrading segregated Black schools. Designed by architect Jesse W. Wessinger, the campus was built in 1949 and subsequently enlarged and updated between 1952 and 1961 with funds from the equalization program. From 1949 to 1968, Lakeview was the only public school for Black residents of West Columbia, a Columbia suburb originally known as Brookland or New Brookland. The nominated property replaced earlier facilities also known as Lakeview School and New Brookland Colored School, and it is the only historically segregated Black school still extant in West Columbia. The period of significance begins with the construction of the original school building in 1949 and ends in 1968, the last year the school operated as a racially segregated educational facility. Listed in the National Register January 31, 2023.

Period of Significance:

1949 – 1968

Level of Significance:

Local

Area of Significance:

Education;Ethnic Heritage: Black

National Register Determination:

listed

Date of Certification:

January 31 2023

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