St. Anne's Parochial School

Front inscription

St. Anne’s Church, the first Catholic church in York County, was founded in 1919 by the Rev. William A. Tobin of Columbia. The first building, erected on Saluda Street in 1920, closed in 1961. St. Anne’s opened its first parochial school in the church rectory in 1951, with 17 pupils in the kindergarten and first grade. A second grade was added in 1952. A new St. Anne’s School opened here in 1956.

Reverse inscription

In 1954 St. Anne’s became the first school in S.C. to integrate, when it enrolled 5 students from St. Mary’s, the predominantly African-American Catholic church in Rock Hill. The school included grades 1-8 by 1957, and by 1961 had 15 black students enrolled. Worship services for St. Anne’s Church were held in the school auditorium 1982-1994. In 1998, St. Anne School moved to a new facility on Bird Street.