Marlboro County · Marker 35-48
New Hill Baptist Church
195 S.C. Hwy. 79, Bennettsville vicinity
Front inscription
Organized by 1919, this Freewill Baptist congregation first met at a wooded 6.5-acre site approx. ½ mi. north where they built a wood frame church and established a cemetery. A storm destroyed the first church in the early 1950s. Members began worshipping at this 2-acre site after buying it from the Marlboro Co. School District in 1953. The current block church was built in 1975.
Brightsville School
From 1953-75 New Hill Church met in the former Brightsville School, built 1920-21 as an unusual barn-roofed, 2-story Rosenwald school for African Americans. It replaced an older one-room schoolhouse and was later converted to 1-story. In the early 1950s the school enrolled 70-100 students in grades 1-7. It closed in 1953 as part of the consolidation of Marlboro County’s country schools.