40-149 Blossom Street School / Celia Dial Saxon School - South Carolina Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

(Front) Blossom Street School, at the corner of what was then Blossom & Gates (now Park) Streets, was built in 1898 as the first public school in Columbia south of Senate Street. A frame building, it was originally a school for white children. After it burned in 1915, a brick school was built here the next year. Blossom Street became a school for black children in Ward One in 1929 and was renamed Celia Dial Saxon School in 1930.

(Reverse) Blossom Street School was renamed to honor Celia Dial Saxon (1857-1935). Saxon was educated at the Normal School at the University of S.C. 1875-77, during Reconstruction. She taught in Columbia schools for 57 years and was a founder of the Wilkinson Orphanage, Wheatley YWCA, and Fairwold Industrial School. Saxon School closed in 1968 and was demolished in 1974 as a result of campus expansion by the University of S.C.

_{Erected by the Ward One Families Reunion Organization and the Historic Columbia Foundation, 2008}

Marker Name: 40-149 Blossom Street School / Celia Dial Saxon School Marker Location: City Type of Marker: Building Marker number: 40-149 County: Richland

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Date Logged Log User Rating   05/29/2010 ChapterhouseInc visited it