The restored one-room Piney Grove Schoolhouse for Black Americans at the Culbertson Backcountry Settlement, 7000 Georgia Road, Gray Court, SC, will be open for tours Saturday, March 15, at 1:00 pm. The Piney Grove Schoolhouse was established around 1870 after the SC State Constitution mandated public education for all in South Carolina. This tour is free and open to the public. The Laurens County Museum and the Gray Court-Owings Historical Society are sponsoring this event at a site and structure important to the history of education in Laurens County and the Upstate of South Carolina. Established by the Gray Court-Owings Historical Society, Culbertson Backcountry Settlement is situated in Gray Court, SC, along the old Georgia Road, which used to serve as the Wagon and Stage Coach Road to the state of Georgia. In addition to the Piney Grove Schoolhouse, you will discover two log cabins dating back to 1790, a blockhouse constructed in 1770, and other structures important to life in the South Carolina Backcountry since Colonial times. Additionally, there’s an 1885 church standing within the settlement’s grounds.
Culbertson Backcountry Settlement is a stop on the Laurens Country Revolutionary War 250th Driving and Biking Trail. Representatives from the Gray Court-Owings Historical Society will be available on March 15 to interpret the site for attendees.
