Bowman Rosenwald School

Front: Bowman Rosenwald School, which stood here from 1927 to 1952, was one of several African-American schools in Orangeburg County funded in part by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. The school, built in 1926-27 at a cost of $6,000, was a five-room frame building typical of the larger rural schools built by the Rosenwald Foundation between 1917 and 1932. The school burned in 1952. Reverse: Bowman Rosenwald School educated about 250 students a year for most of its history, at first in grades 1-8 with five teachers and a five-month session, but by 1948-49 in grades 1-12 with nine teachers and an eight-month session. Its enrollment grew dramatically after World War II, reaching a peak of 576 students in 1951-52, its last full school year.