Blossom Street School

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.