Palmetto School

Front: By the 1910s this was the site of Palmetto School, a public school for African Americans. It was housed in a wooden building that burned in 1941 and was replaced with support from the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration (WPA). Around that time it had 60-70 elementary-age students and two teachers. It was part of the Florence City School District and closed in 1952. In 1953 the school building became the Florence County Foster Home for Negro Children. Reverse: The foster home was opened by the Florence Council of Negro Women, then led by Dr. Iola Jones. The Council raised public and private funding for the effort, which aided orphaned and needy children otherwise often placed in jail. The home had around 15 rooms and capacity for 22 children. It closed in 1969, and the remaining children were sent to previously all-white Florence Foster Home. The building no longer stands.