GOVAN -- The one-room schoolhouse in Middle Place, a community near Govan in southwestern Bamberg County, may be gone, but the memories live on. The schoolhouse, built in 1887, sat on what once was a vast plantation.

This Saturday, the Middle Place community will hold a homecoming beginning at noon to raise funds for construction of a replica of the old school.

Willie Cam Nimmons, executive director for the nonprofit Middle Place Learning and Information Station Inc., said the school was a major part of the community's rich heritage.

"The blacks realized they wanted an education ... they could get further and do more with an education. So the men of the community got together after the Civil War and built that one-room schoolhouse," she said.

Not only was the building used to educate black children in grades one through six; it also served as a Sunday School and as a night school for railroad workers, Nimmons said. Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, founder of Voorhees College in Denmark, taught for a while at Middle Place, she said.

Nimmons and her husband, William, said that in the late 1950s, when schools for blacks were built in towns, rural schools like Middle Place simply shut down.

"It (the school) had such sentimental value. It was a place that really served the community," Mrs. Nimmons said.

Mr. Nimmons added, "The school districts decided they would either sell or donate the rural schools to the community, and my father bought the Middle Place School."

Eventually, the school had to be torn down because of extensive termite damage, dashing all hopes of renovating or restoring the structure to its original appearance. That's when the Middle Place Learning and Information Station Inc. decided to build a replica of the schoolhouse where it once stood. The building will be used for community meetings, reunions, training and health workshops. The organization also plans to assist senior citizens with paperwork, set up job banks and work with parents on building relationships with their children, Mrs. Nimmons said.

Earlier this year, the foundation and foundation walls of the new building were built, but work has ceased as the group strives to obtain grants and funds to continue the project.

Saturday's homecoming will be held at the site for descendants of Middle Place and their friends. Families will gather in period dress, and there will be storytelling, singing and games from the period, as well.

Homemade foods from the 1930s, '40s and '50s, including collard greens, hoppin' john, cracklin' corn bread and stone stew, will be served, along with fried fish, chicken, hot dogs and hamburgers.

Middle Place Community is just outside of Govan. From U.S. 321, turn onto Govan Road at the Govan town sign. Follow the road to the Middle Place Community sign.

T&D Correspondent Pam Leoniak-Delk can be reached by e-mail at paloma3@juno.com. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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