Wardlaw Junior High School - Columbia, SC
N 34° 00.778 W 081° 02.540
17S E 496091 N 3763594
Now serves as a nursing home, one of several historic schools in the area.
Waymark Code: WM9JJB
Location: South Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 08/26/2010
Views: 1
Wardlaw Middle School) Begun in December of 1926 and completed in September of 1927, Wardlaw’s significance lies in the fact that it was the first junior high school building in the state. In addition, its design by J. B. Urquhart is a good example of a 1920’s collegiate Gothic building. The grounds, formerly a farm that was a part of a plantation, are accented by large magnolias. Built during the superintendentship of Dr. William Harvey Hand, construction cost of the school was $220,000. The school was named for Dr. Patterson Wardlaw, one of the foremost educators of the South, at the time, a member of the faculty of the University of South Carolina. Before Wardlaw was built, schools in South Carolina were organized into elementary schools, grades 1-7, and high schools, grades 8-11. It is a three-story brick structure built in a rectangular plan with a central courtyard. The entrance is accented by a pointed arch and Gothic window tracery above the doors. The flanking buttresses are infilled with an engraved panel bearing the name of the school, nine-over-nine double-hung windows, and a blind arcade with diapering brickwork at the terminus. The remainder of the façade is highlighted by a cast stone belt course and a series of decorative stone panels beneath the three unit groupings of windows on the third floor. Projecting one-story porches serve as ground floor entrances around the building. Listed in the National Register September 13, 1984.
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