Site of First African American High School in Anderson County

In the late 1890s the Greeley Institute on McDuffie Street taught African-American students. Two black schools were being used in 1900 and Greeley had 5 teachers and 583 students. A brick school was constructed in 1901 at a cost of $3,000 on the corner of South Towers and Reed Streets. The 1905 city directory called it Grammar School #1 and Mr. M.H. Gassaway was principal with 9 teachers.

The faculty of the Reed Street African-American High School included Prof. M.H. Gassaway as principal and teachers Mrs. Gassaway, Mr. Todd, Mrs. Todd, A. Anderson, I. Watson, Mr. Rhodes, M. Gassaway, Mrs. Moore, and M.G. Brown. Black teachers' average salaries for 1900 were $108 while salaries in 1901 were $113. In 1918 the Reed Street School had an enrollment of 286 students and 11 teachers in the 7 elementary grades and a 3-year high school program.

The Julius Rosenwald Fund was established to promote the building of Southern black schoolhouses. The school board asked the fund to help replace the old Reed Street School. They accepted and Rosenwald contributed $1,600, while gifts totaled $11,400, and the state contributed $42,000 to erect this 12-teacher black schoolhouse. From 1914 to 1932 the Rosenwald Fund assisted in the building of 4,977 mainly rural brick schools in the South. The fund assisted 481 South Carolina schools with gifts totaling $463,000 or 15.68 percent of each school's costs.