Orangeburg County · Marker 38-54
Bull Swamp Colored School
112 Purity St., Orangeburg vicinity
Front inscription
In 1936 the 3-room Bull Swamp Colored School was built near Bull Swamp Baptist Church. The building cost $3,000 and was a New Deal project of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA). Upon opening, around 70 students in grades 1-7 attended each day for a 4-month term. An earlier school for Black residents of the Bull Swamp area was in operation as early as the 1910s.
Reverse inscription
The design of Bull Swamp Colored School was similar to ones developed earlier by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation, emphasizing natural light, ventilation, and spacious classrooms. The school closed in 1958. Students subsequently attended Nix Elementary School (5 mi. W) in Orangeburg, built through the state equalization program. Bull Swamp Colored School still stands.