Bell Street/ Martha Dendy School Historic Summary Prepared for the City of Clinton Prepared by
Report Background: This report was undertaken in the fall of as a requirement of the City of Clinton s Memorandum of Agreement with the South Carolina Department of Archives and History s State Historic Preservation Office pursuant to review under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funded demolition of the Martha Dendy School in Clinton. This report includes all applicable historic records and documentation for the school available at the time of its completion. The report includes historical information related to the African American community it served provided by local citizens who were former students and teachers at the school. Additionally, the report includes information on the architectural character of the building due to its association with the prominent South Carolina firm of Lafaye, Lafaye and Fair. 2
Historic Abstract: Martha Dendy School (formally Bell Street School) located at the intersection of Bell and Washington Streets in Clinton was a landmark in the African American community in for one hundred and twenty five years. Like many African American schools in the south it began in the heart of the Clinton African American community, the church. Friendship A.M.E. is a church founded by freed slaves in Clinton in 1880. As the church grew, it saw a need to attend to the academic needs of the local African American youth, as well as their spiritual needs, and by 1883 a school had been established in a one room building adjacent to the church on Bell Street in northwest Clinton. 1 The new school served African American students in grades one through eight from throughout Clinton. The growth in attendance over time resulted in the need for additional buildings, including a two story Odd Fellows Lodge hall according to local oral history. In the early nineteen twenties, grades nine and ten were added, and in 1925 grade eleven was added. This made Friendship School the only school in Laurens County where African Americans could receive a state High School Diploma at the time. In 1926 a new brick building was constructed adjacent to the existing campus, and the school became a county school. 2 With the construction of the new building, the name was changed to Bell Street High School because of the road the new building was on. The new building was based on popular school designs of its day, with a long façade comprised of a projecting central pavilion with a pedimented entry supported by columns. This was flanked by two long classroom wings with groupings of double hung windows for each classroom. In the rear, the auditorium protruded perpendicular to the main façade and gave the building a T shaped plan. This building was described by students as First Class despite receiving second hand books and supplies from the white schools, because that was all they knew. The building was sparse and utilitarian, relying on cross ventilation from windows and transoms for cooling in the summer 1 Preliminary Information Form Martha Dendy School, Citizens for the Preservation of Bell Street/ Martha Dendy School, September, 2008 2 Laurens County Deed Book D 1185, Page 174-180, March 29, 2014 3
months, and was heated by coal burning potbellied stoves in the winter. There was no public transportation in those days, so students walked miles to school while some from out in the county in places like Joanna boarded with other families in Clinton during the week. A private citizen named Arthur Jenkins ran his own private school bus to the communities around Clinton. The African American school in the county seat of Laurens did not offer classes beyond ninth grade, so many students from Laurens came to Bell Street for tenth and eleventh grades. In 1937 Bell Street became the first African American high school in Laurens County to be accredited by the state. The school day was from eight to three with lunch in their classrooms. Students brought their lunches with them, which typically consisted of a biscuit and a piece of fat back. Having a hot dog for lunch was considered a big deal. 3 (Bell Street School (c.1926), Laurens County Public Library Post Card Collection) 4
Bell Street School was an extension of the student s home in many ways. Principals like J.W. Mimms and Reverend Johnson were strict disciplinarians, and expected the students to act appropriately while on campus, which they enforced with a strap, and would inform parents of disciplinary issues by personally visiting homes without phones each night. The teachers at Bell Street were typically not from Clinton, and frequently boarded in town in the area below the African American funeral home. The teachers 3 Oral History Interview; Mr. Costell Little, Mrs. Hattie Suber, Mrs. Ethel Jones, July 19, 5
were role models for the students and set an example for them in the way they dressed (jacket and tie for men, and heels with hose for the women) and the way they carried themselves. Parents were very involved and supportive of the school and their students. The school put on two plays each year, one at Christmas and the other at the end of the year, which were always major events for the community. Families walked for miles in the dark to get to and from these evening events if they didn t have access to a car. Bell Street didn t have a football field so its games were played at Presbyterian College, which students remember as having gone out of their way to make the Bell Street Wildcats, students and their fans feel welcome on its campus even before integration. It is this link to higher education and strong support from the community that some Bell Street Alumni credit with inspiring graduates to seek higher education. At a time when few African American Students completed a high school diploma, Bell Street had six of its twenty seniors go on to college in 1947. 4 In 1949 the earlier school burned due to a boiler room fire. The students went to school in a nearby house and the Friendship AME church for the remainder of the year. The new building was constructed during the summer on the same site and opened to grades one through eleven in 1950. The school was designed by the prominent architectural firm of Lafaye, Lafaye and Fair out of Columbia, South Carolina. The firm had long roots in South Carolina with the establishment of Lafaye and Lafaye in 1919 as a collaboration between brothers George Eugene Lafaye and Robert Stoddard Lafaye. The firm grew in size and notoriety until 1937 when its name was changed to Lafaye, Lafaye and Fair with the addition of Herndon Moore Fair as partner. George Eugene Lafaye Jr. joined the firm as a Partner following his father s death in 1939. The firm was known across the state for its design skill through the creation of some of the state s most recognizable buildings including the Wade Hampton State Office Building (1940) in Columbia, the US Court House (1935) in Aiken, and the World War Memorial Building (1935) in Columbia. These massive governmental buildings drew inspiration from 4 Oral History Interview, Mr. Costell Little Mrs. Hattie Suber Mrs. Ethel Jones, July 19, 6
classical architecture, which was popular at their time of construction, but the firm continued to keep pace with the changing tastes in architecture over time, leading to works like the Bell Street School. 5 Former students recall though the building was new, it was furnished with used desks and text books from the white schools. Mrs. Hattie Suber, who was a student in the former building, remembers feeling like the new building didn t measure up to its predecessor. The new school building continued to be the crucible of education in the African American community in Clinton until a new school was established in 1957. This new school was constructed as part of the equalization program in South Carolina prior to integration. This school, located on Lydia Mill Road, housed the eighth through twelfth grades and was called Bell Street High School, despite not being on Bell Street. The former Bell Street High School was renamed Bell Street Elementary and housed grade one through seven. In 1960 the school s principal David Dendy and a committee petitioned the school board to change the name to Martha Dendy Elementary, in honor of his mother Martha. Martha was the daughter of freed slaves, and though she was uneducated, she worked hard doing laundry for Presbyterian College students and was able to send all nine of her children to college. 5 The South Carolina Architects, 1885-1935: A Biographical Dictionary, John E. Wells and Robert E. Dalton, New South Architectural Press, 1992, Page 94-98 6
(Location of Dendy School, site of the first Friendship AME, New Friendship AME, and Bell Street High School. USGS Map 1970) Integration came to Clinton in 1970, and Martha Dendy and Bell Street High School played leading roles in the city s peaceful transition. The schools held seventh, eighth and ninth graders of both races based on gender for four years. Girls attended Martha Dendy while boys attended Bell Street High. People in the community speculated that this was based on unfounded concerns about young teenage African American boys being around young teenage white girls. Prom was also canceled both at these schools and Clinton High School where the tenth through twelfth grades were housed for a few years, only to be reinstated with an abundance of chaperones once the schools were fully integrated. Sports and the athletic ability of the African American students that came 5 The South Carolina Architects, 1885-1935: A Biographical Dictionary, John E. Wells and Robert E. Dalton, New South Architectural Press, 1992, Page 94-98 7
through Martha Dendy were credited by many in the local African American community as helping pave the way for a smooth integration. 6 In 1997 the school s name was changed again to the Martha Dendy 6 th Grade Center. The school was closed by Laurens County School District 56 in 2008. 7 Architecture: Unlike its predecessor, which was built in a more classically inspired look that borrowed from the Colonial and Neo-classical Revivals, Bell Street s 1950 reconstruction was in the International Style which was in vogue in the middle of the twentieth century. Many mid-century architectural style variation including the International Style were focused on minimal ornamentation and an honest use of materials that highlight the building s structural make up. The new Bell Street, as it was originally designed, was a long rectangular building with a double loaded corridor running the length of the building, with the office and auditorium flanking either side at almost the mid point. The design maximized the topography of the site by creating a split level plan, making the northern end of the building two stories. The layout of the building s classrooms, auditorium and administrative offices closely mirrors the previous school, likely because the new building reused the previous school s brick foundation for its construction (see pages 14 and 15 in the Appendix). (Portion of east façade from original plans) 6 Oral History Interview, Mr. Costell Little Mrs. Hattie Suber Mrs. Ethel Jones, July 19, 7 Preliminary Information Form Martha Dendy School, Citizens for the Preservation of Bell Street/ Martha Dendy School, September, 2008 7
While the hallmark of the style is the lack of overt elaboration, the architect did incorporate interesting design elements that make the structure of the building more decorative. The wings were punctuated by long ranks of stacked ribbon windows with awning (4 th from the bottom) and hopper (1 st ) sashes. The sets of windows were broken up by small portions of brick wall that looked like pilasters and reflected the interior arrangement of classrooms on the exterior, a hallmark of mid century architecture. Below these sets of windows the brick wall was constructed of stacked bricks which were purely decorative and both emphasized and reflected the repetitive stacked rectangles of the window openings and their sashes. (East façade showing original windows and transition from single to double story) The building s roof had a low profile making it look flat from the primary façades but it was in fact almost a reverse gable sloping down from the outer edge to a series of low cross gables creating a trough running the length of the building. (Right: Plans showing roof profile, Left: Roof profile behind covered walkway) 8
The front entry was made up of a flat roofed projection from the main mass of the building and incorporated a deep covered central entry. The roof s deep overhang was supported on the left by a series of three round metal columns that also held the sign. This was another example of mid-century architecture s goal of taking minimal ornamentation of utilitarian items and giving them an artful feel through their arrangement. (Main entry design from original plans) (Main entry created by later addition) 9 Clinton, South Carolina
The interior of the building maintained the utilitarian feel associated with the style. The corridors were made of cement block punctuated with classroom doors with glazing on the upper half allowing natural light into the hallway. The flooring was a white composite tile that had a single blue tile border running around the perimeter providing a small amount of decoration. The stair well on the north end of the building was another place where understated details were added to provide interest. The railing system utilized metal posts with solid metal panels for railings. These panels had a single rectangular border stamped in them to create a panelized affect. (Right: Original stair section drawing, Left: Existing stair well prior to demolition) The School received additions to each end over time expanding the initial footprint. On the south end of the building near Washington Street another bay of classrooms were added to the end of the building, which did not maintain the window pattern, but did maintain the roof profile. On the west side of the building the original auditorium was converted to a lunch room and the stage was relocated to the east end of the room. The area of the former stage was repurposed for a serving area and a kitchen was added onto the back of the original auditorium. On the north end, a wing of additional classrooms and a gymnasium were added to the original building, which did not maintain the earlier 10
roof profile or window pattern. On the east façade, the original entry was covered over by an addition to the administrative offices which did not maintain any of the original design features of the entry. (Rear of the original auditorium showing the addition of the cafeteria kitchen) Bibliography: Preliminary Information Form Martha Dendy School, Citizens for the Preservation of Bell Street/ Martha Dendy School, September, 2008 Laurens County Deed Book D 1185, Page 174-180, March 29, 2014 Oral History Interview; Mr. Costell Little, Mrs. Hattie Suber, Mrs. Ethel Jones, July 19, The South Carolina Architects, 1885-1935: A Biographical Dictionary, John E. Wells and Robert E. Dalton, New South Architectural Press, 1992, Page 94-98 11
Appendix: Architectural Plans, Lafaye, Lafaye, and Fair, Columbia SC, 1950 12
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