Lexington County · Marker 32-37
Batesburg Institute
Corner of Academy and Peachtree Sts., Batesburg
Front inscription
The Batesburg Institute opened here in 1893. Also called the Batesburg Collegiate Institute, it was created by the merger of the town’s Methodist and Baptist schools, founded in the 1880s. The Institute moved into the Baptist school, a one-story frame building later enlarged with a second story. W.J. Helms, its first principal, served here from 1893 to 1896, when the institute had more than 100 students.
Reverse inscription
Principals of the Institute from 1896 to 1911 inclueed D.W. Daniel, L.C. Perry, J.R.T. Major, and W.C. Martin. John Broadus Watson (1878-1958), who taught at the Batesburg Institute 1899-1900, was later a renowned psychologist and a pioneer in the field of behaviorism. The Batesburg Institute burned in 1911 and was replaced by the Batesburg Graded and High School, a new brick school on U.S. Highway 1, in 1912.