South Carolina Department of Archives and History
National Register Properties in South Carolina

Andrew B. Murray Vocational School, Charleston County (3 Chisolm St., Charleston)
S1081771017001 S1081771017002 S1081771017003 S1081771017004 S1081771017005
Facade Right Oblique Right Elevation Left Oblique Left Elevation
S1081771017006 S1081771017007 S1081771017008 S1081771017009 S1081771017010
Caretaker's House
Facade
Caretaker's House
Left Oblique
Caretaker's House
Right Oblique
Gymnasium
Left Oblique
Gymnasium
Right Oblique

The Andrew B. Murray Vocational School is historically significant as a representative example of school architecture in South Carolina. It is exceptional in that the site contains not only South Carolina’s first vocational school, but also a caretaker’s house and a gymnasium/shop. The complex exemplifies the importance placed on practical education in the first half of the twentieth century. As the white vocational school, the school also stands as an example of the segregated public school system in South Carolina in the years before the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. As a boys’ school that became coed in the mid 1930s, with differing curriculum for the different genders, it illustrates differences in the teaching of boys and girls at public schools in South Carolina. The Andrew B. Murray Vocational School, built in 1922 and opened in 1923, was designed in the Neo-Classical style by Charleston architect David B. Hyer. The school is a three-story U-shaped building covered with smooth stucco and with limestone detailing. The caretaker’s house (ca. 1922) is a small two-story brick residence set back from the street. Laid in stretcher (running) bond, the structure has a one-story porch running across the three bays of the first floor on the east (front) façade. This is the only remaining example of a school caretaker’s cottage remaining in the city. The two-story rectangular gymnasium/shop was constructed in 1948 of concrete block, faced with brick laid in a five course American bond. Listed in the National Register May 20, 2002.

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