Olympia school ‘hub’ of village history

The Olympia mill village has a long history of education through its Olympia school.

The first school opened in October 1901 in a house that still stands at 1170 Olympia Ave., according to a 2002 historical survey. It is next to the current school building, now named the Olympia Learning Center.

The house today is being renovated into a museum by Olympia natives Sherry and Jake Jaco through the Olympia-Granby Historical Foundation.

The house is one of the standard mill houses, according to the survey: a two-story, six-room, side-gable building with a “saltbox,” or sloped roof shed across the back.

In 1907, the little house was overcrowded with 230 students, so the mill in 1909 built a new, two-story, brick school building. Additions were made over the next six years, and by 1913, Olympia School was the largest public school in the county.

“You grew up from the first grade all the way through,” said Jake Jaco, an Olympia native who co-owns Jaco’s Corner, a mill village landmark. “The school was the hub” of the village.

The first high school was built in 1926, on the site of today’s school. It was damaged by fire in 1931 and burned again in the 1960s.

In 1970, the school was integrated and turned into a middle school. High school students from the village were sent to Booker T. Washington High School near the USC campus.

Many see that as the beginning of the decline of the mill village, which culminated with the mills closing in 1996.

“You no longer had a high school. You didn’t have a football team,” said lifelong Olympia resident Joby Castine, author of “Gamecocks and Lintheads,” a humorous history of the mill village and Gamecock football.

“You lost a sense of community,” Castine said.

During renovations in 2001, the school burned to the ground. Only the gymnasium, built in 1938, survived. It reopened in 2004 as Olympia Learning Center, an alternative school for students in grades six through twelve. The rebuilt school paid homage to the old one – it was reconstructed at the same size as the old one and the original red doors and school memorabilia that survived the fire were put on display in the new building.

This story was originally published May 21, 2016 at 10:42 PM with the headline "Olympia school ‘hub’ of village history."