Throughout my vacation in the first two weeks of August, I hit three locations in two different parts of South Carolina, one of which I've been to before. The first was an elementary school built around 1953. A program coordinated by South Carolina governor James Byrnes used tax funds to construct schools specifically for African-American children following the Supreme Court case Briggs v. Elliott. Its date of closure is unknown.
1. Fairly remote, this school is located on a circular road off of the main road and almost entirely surrounded by thick vegetation with no other buildings visible from the property.
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2. The first room I found was the auditorium, located in the main section of the building that contained five or six rooms.
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6. There were two additions that each contained five or six classrooms that stretched out to the rear of the property behind the main building. There was no interior hallway and each classroom was only accessible from the outside.
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9. My second location was one that I previously visited two years ago. Unfortunately, it has gone severely downhill in the interim. Firstly, the roof collapsed, taking much of the interior with it and leaving most of the school inaccessible. Also, the graffiti kids found it. This entryway was entirely devoid of graffiti two years ago.
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KMD1720, on Flickr
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11. The hallway to the left was completely collapsed, as were the stairs.
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12. The auditorium had collapsed previously, so it hasn't changed much.
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13. The wing to the right of the entry was still accessible if you snaked past another collapse.
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KMD1720, on Flickr
14. Destruction of a classroom
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15. One classroom and one bathroom in the basement was still accessible by a back door, but the main hallway was blocked by collapse. Very disappointed to find one of my favorite locations all but unexplorable.
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16. Finally, we move from the northeast Sandhills to the southeast portion of the state for a final quick explore on the way to the beach. This one-room, wood-frame church was built in 1884 after the congregation's original structure, founded in 1842, burned in 1878. The grounds and surrounding cemetery are maintained, but the church is in rough shape.
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KMD1720, on Flickr
17. A gutted piano inside made for an unexpected surprise.
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KMD1720, on Flickr
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KMD1720, on Flickr
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