HISTORIC OCONEE COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA Subject: Long Creek Academy Version 1.0, 5-Jan-2003, FCH-12.txt **************************************************************** REPRODUCING NOTICE: ------------------- These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, or presentation by any other organization, or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Paul M Kankula - nn8nn Seneca, SC, USA Oconee County SC GenWeb Coordinator Oconee County SC GenWeb Homestead http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/oconee.html Oconee County SC GenWeb Tombstone Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/cemeteries.html http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery/southcarolina/oconee.html Contributor: Frederick C. Holder, Box 444, Pickens, SC 29671 **************************************************************** DATAFILE INPUT . : Paul M. Kankula at kankula1@innova.net in Jan-2003 DATAFILE LAYOUT : Paul M. Kankula at kankula1@innova.net in Jan-2003 HISTORY WRITE-UP : Frederick C. Holder in 1989 LONG CREEK ACADEMY - Established 1914 Two schools were established in the early 1900s for under- privileged children living in the mountainous areas of Oconee County. The first was Long Creek Academy in 1914, and the second was Tamassee Industrial School (now called Tamassee D.A.R. School) in 1919. Long Creek Academy, built by the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, operated as a grammar school and high school and also offered Bible and missions courses. The Board operated four other such schools in South Carolina including one at Six Mile and another at North Greenville. The last of the buildings con- structed in the initial stage of development of Six Mile Academy was destroyed in 1990-91 to make way for a new fire station. The school at North Greenville is now a junior college. The first building of Long Creek Academy was completed in 1914 and a second building, the Sullivan Home for Girls named after Paul P. Sullivan of Westminster, was completed in 1917. By the late 1920s, a new county grammar school had been built in Long Creek, and the academy then served as a high school for grades eight through eleven. The school offered courses in manual training and business in addi- tion to required Bible courses. Many area students attended the academy on a weekly basis during term, and students from more dis- tant areas boarded at the school during the time the academy was operated by the South Carolina Baptist Convention; other boarding students paid a small yearly fee. Ministerial students could attend free of charge. When school was not in term, a few of the boarding students helped work the farm which supplied food for the academy. Reverend Luther Henry Raines reorganized Long Creek Academy as a private school after the South Carolina Baptist Convention voted to sell the property in 1931. The Academy became an accredited state high school under Raines' direction, and the state assisted in paying the teachers' salaries until 1952. The school then operated without state or denominational funds until it closed in 1956. Over the years, many Baptist ministers and hundreds of other persons received their high school education at Long Creek Academy. It was listed in the Na- tional Register of Historic Places in 1987. Location: Take Long Creek Highway (Hwy. 76) northwest from Westminster to Long Creek. At Long Creek, slightly before reaching the small post office, turn right onto Academy Road (Road 14) and go approximately one mile. The main building, a white two-story building with a columned porch, sits atop a small hill on the left of the road. The Sullivan Building, an unpainted two story L-shaped building, is to the rear of the main building and is now used as the office for a river raft- ing company.