Ridgeway High School — Ridgeway, South Carolina

This lone doorway is all that remains of Ridgeway High School, which was once a vital presence in the Fairfield County town of Ridgeway. The two-story brick school opened in 1921. An auditorium was added to the campus in 1925. Photographer Reggie Murphy explains the building was torn down in the early 2000s but the high school closed in the early 1960s when Winnsboro High School opened. All that is left is this archway, which was the main entrance to the school used by children in grades 1-12 who once attended the school.

Below is a composite image of Ridgeway High School created by frequent contributor Tom Taylor. Taylor combined a recent photo of the school’s remaining brickwork with an old photo depicting the school in its prime. The result allows viewers to see the remains of the Ridgeway High School while envisioning what it looked like during its operational days.

Ridgeway High School is listed in the National Register as part of the Ridgeway Historic District:

The Ridgeway Historic District is significant as an example of a virtually intact turn-of-the-century town whose development was inextricably tied to agricultural prosperity. A majority of the buildings in the district were built between 1890 and 1915, the heyday of cotton production in the area. The community developed in an east-west linear pattern paralleling the Southern Railway tracks, completed in 1850. After a period of economic depression following the Civil War, Ridgeway began to develop as a commercial center serving area farmers. By 1880 there were ten stores located in the commercial district, two stores still survive. The town’s merchants constructed modern new brick stores along Palmer Street and some also built their homes in the residential section adjacent to the central business district. The district contains approximately thirty-one buildings including a commercial block with a predominance of simply ornamented two-story brick stores and a residential block with primarily asymmetrical, frame, weatherboarded houses lining the tree shaded streets. Styles include Queen Anne, Neo-Classical, Victorian, and Bungalow. Also included are a school, the town hall, and the police station.

Ridgeway High School Map

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