Schools

West Dunlap Street

Lancaster Academy

The Lancaster Academy was the first documented school in the town of Lancasterville, dating from 1802. It seems to have generated little interest. From Mills' Statistics of South Carolina:

"The progress of literature has been very tardy in this district; more especially in the eastern section of it, where the people in many instances are poor. In the western parts, the people being more wealthy, have paid greater attention to education. There has not been a grammer school of any note in this district for many years until lately. . . ."

Franklin Academy

A new school was established in 1825. Mills' Statistics of South Carolina continues:

"An Academy has been lately endowed by the munificence of the legislature of the State, who granted for that purpose the escheated property of the district. From this fund a very fine building has been erected in the village, of brick, two stories high. The funds accruing from this source now amount annually to about $2,000, to which have been added about $1,200 in private donations. It is called the Franklin Academy."

James Marion Sims (1813 - 1883) provides a description in his autobiography, The Story of My Life:

"The school was for both boys and girls -- the lower floor for girls and very little children, and the upper floor for the others. There were about seventy-five in all, boys predominating, some of them over twenty-five years old, down to some not more than ten or twelve."

Over the years, the building was remodelled. In the late 1880s, the Franklin Academy was renamed the Franklin Institute.

Lancaster Graded School

Another name change created the Lancaster Graded School in 1893.