(828) 526-0173 | [email protected] | Copyright 2024 – All Rights Reserved.
Forefathers’ Strength & Resolve
Written By: Mary Jane McCall | Issue: 2020/08 – August
“What’s a poor boy to do in times like these?”
Those lyrics were floating through my head as I drove onto the grounds of the historic Zachary-Tolbert house in Cashiers. Face masks, hand sanitizers and grim statistics were beginning to take a toll, but I discovered there’s nothing quite like a visit to these peaceful and historic grounds to calm your mind and spirit. The strength and resolve of our forefathers seems to flow forth here.
A particularly restful and interesting part of these grounds is the Historic Hampton School, the local school from the 1890s which was relocated here and restored in 2018. Originally built in 1890 by Wade Hampton III with the encouragement of his three sisters, Kate, Ann and Caroline Hampton, this school was a first for local students. The sisters, in their 60s when the school was completed, did most of the teaching every summer for over a decade when they arrived at their nearby summer home.
The school was located on the property of the Episcopal Church so when the sisters retired in their 70s, the school was repurposed as a Sunday School. Later it became part of the High Hampton property in the 1920s and was used as a guest cottage. When the property was sold in 2018, the Historical Society stepped in to save the structure.
This old school has weathered the changing times, and the restored premises still includes the back room built on by High Hampton for its use as a guest cottage, but it is its history as a one-room schoolhouse that still resonates.
From the charming front porch entry and the one school room lined with wooden benches with walls covered by chalkboards, to the pot belly wood stove, you can almost hear the laughter of the children who learned here.
In fact, the Historical Society has hosted local school groups on field trips here where they were able to experience first-hand how school life differed in those days. They walked the hiking trails, packed a sack lunch, sat on the benches and enjoyed recess on the grounds.
Living history, it’s done well here at the Cashiers Historical Society.
