Ocean Grove School
National Register Listing
Street Address:
Southeast of 12 Ocean Grove Rd., near intersection with Shaw's Fork Rd., Aiken vicinity (Aiken County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817702046
Description and Narrative:
Ocean Grove School is a vernacular wood frame building constructed around 1907 and is locally significant under Education and Ethnic Heritage: Black as a rare intact early twentieth-century rural schoolhouse for African Americans. The school was built to serve Black children of Aiken County’s unincorporated Ocean Grove community and was during its years of operation the only public school available for local residents. It closed in 1953 when local students began attending a new facility constructed through the state equalization program, at which time the building became a community center. Ocean Grove School is also locally significant under Agriculture, Entertainment/Recreation, and Ethnic Heritage: Black for being the site of a Black Community Fair hosted by local farmers almost every year from 1936 to at least 1943. The fair served as both a promotional and educational event for local farmers and offered organized recreational opportunities for local African Americans. The property is also locally significant under Architecture as a locally rare intact example of an early 1900s rural school that reflects broad trends in educational architecture of the period, aimed at improving and standardizing school design. The period of significance is from c.1907 to 1953, which corresponds with the school’s probable construction date and the last known year of its operation, and encompasses the period in which the fair ran. Listed in the National Register May 15, 2024.
Period of Significance:
1907 – 1953
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Agriculture;Ethnic Heritage: Black;Architecture;Entertainment/Recreation;Education
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
May 15 2024
