The First Project of UHPS

Saving New Hope Schoolhouse

A Schoolhouse in Disguise

The First Move of the Schoolhouse

Taking the Schoolhouse Back Home

It may look like a residence today, but beneath the vinyl siding is a sturdy old schoolhouse:  the former one-room, two-teacher home of New Hope Colored School.  Today the structure stands in the way of progress, directly in the path of a new development.

The schoolhouse was built early in the 20th century on Old Stone Church Road, across from the Stone Church Cemetery.  New Hope Baptist Church donated the building in 1972 to the Clemson Council on Human Relations, which moved it to the campus of the ground-breaking Clemson Child Development Center (CCDC). It served as classroom, library, and office space for 35 years until the CCDC moved to the Calhoun School Building in 2007.

As construction of a new development begins to encroach on the abandoned CCDC campus, the Schoolhouse must be moved to safety.  Efforts are underway to take the building to a new location at Dawson Park, near the site of its construction.  There, once restored to its original condition, it can become a piece of living history, teaching the public about the vital role it played in the local African American experience.