Beaufort County · Marker 07-29
Michael C. Riley Schools
Goethe Rd. between Hilderbrand Rd. and Schultz Rd., Bluffton
Front inscription
This is the site of two schools that served the black community of southern Beaufort County for most of the twentieth century. Bluffton Graded School, a small frame building constructed about 1900, was followed in 1954 by an elementary and high school named for Michael C. Riley (1873-1966), longtime trustee of Beaufort County School District # 2.
Reverse inscription
From 1954 to 1970 the elementary school educated Bluffton’s black students in grades 1-8 and the high school educated Bluffton’s and Hilton Head’s black students in grades 9-12. After county schools were desegregated in 1970, it was an elementary school for Bluffton’s black and white students until 1991. A new Michael C. Riley Elementary School opened nearby that same year.