Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
The students may have moved, but the goal of education has not.
That is one condition Anderson School District 4 Superintendent Dee Christopher and the board of trustees intend to carry into discussions about the future of the former Riverside Middle School campus in Pendleton. The property encompasses 28 acres and a school building of approximately 90,000 square feet.
It also contains a history that cannot be measured quite so conveniently.
Clemson University and Tri-County Technical College have expressed interest in acquiring the property, Christopher said. The district plans to seek proposals from both institutions, giving its school board alternatives to an earlier possibility which considered renovating part of the building for district offices and leasing other space.
While no agreement has been reached and the property has not been appraised, board members, who considered the matter at their Monday meeting, want more time before choosing a direction. Their next scheduled meeting is in January, although Christopher said a resolution could come later in February.
Whatever arrangement emerges, he said, education must remain part of the campus’s objectives.
He also wants space inside the building set aside for memorabilia to explain and honor Riverside’s history. Not necessarily a full museum, he said, but something more enduring than an acknowledgment at a ribbon-cutting.
“There’s a lot of people that care deeply about that facility,” he said. “And this school district cares deeply about that facility.”
Riverside’s history makes the question of reuse more complicated, and more consequential, than finding an occupant for an empty public building.
The campus dates to the mid-1950s, when South Carolina was constructing schools for Black students through its equalization program. The state’s purpose was to preserve segregation by improving facilities within a fundamentally unequal system.
Known as Riverside Elementary and High School, the school replaced the Anderson County Training School. Constructed in 1954 on land purchased from Otto Jackson Sr., the institutional history is clear: Riverside was built to educate Black children during segregation and became part of the community’s life across the changes that followed.
Riverside High School graduated its final class in the spring of 1970 and Pendleton High School integrated that fall. The Riverside Street campus subsequently served generations of seventh and eighth graders as Riverside Middle School.
This August, the middle school moved, along with its name, into the former Pendleton High School building on S.C. 187 and expanded to include sixth grade. That move followed the opening of the new, approximately 240,000-square-foot Pendleton High School on Boscobel Road.
The sequence supplied the district with newer arrangements for its students and an unresolved question about the campus they left behind.
Christopher said the district does not plan to move another school to the old Riverside property. It is not needed for the district’s future school operations. But that does not mean, in his view, that its educational life should be over.
“The board really seems like they want this to be an educational facility going forward,” he said.
Christopher outlined the district’s choices publicly in October. One option was to move the district office to Riverside, renovate space for administrative use and accommodate outside organizations interested in leasing portions of the building.
By late summer, however, he had begun receiving inquiries about acquiring the entire property.
Those conversations have brought Clemson and Tri-County into consideration, neither of which has yet submitted complete proposals.
Tri-County’s interest grows out of work already underway with the district and the town of Pendleton. Since 2025, the three have explored how arts, culture and local history might support economic development along the Queen Street corridor.
Consultants assisted with the study, which included surveys and community meetings. Christopher described an approximately mile-long corridor running from the Doghouse to Riverside, with possibilities including maker spaces and other creative uses.
Karen Potter, a Tri-County spokesperson, said the resulting creative placemaking plan identifies Riverside as a key part of the corridor while calling for preservation of its educational and African American heritage.
“TCTC’s interest in the property is an extension of that work and reflects our continued commitment to advancing the community-informed vision and supporting economic development in Pendleton,” Potter said.
For Tri-County, then, the building is not an isolated acquisition opportunity. It is part of a larger effort to connect places, activities and local history along a stretch of town.
For Clemson Extension programming could be an important component. The school’s kitchen appears particularly useful for community outreach and educational activities that existing university space may not accommodate.
“I believe the kitchen would be valuable to them in some of the outreach that they want to be able to do more,” he said.
He described the possibility of community-kitchen activities with an educational element. It is an example of a potential use, not an announced program or a commitment by Clemson.
Other people have recently offered suggestions for the property, Christopher said, but the district’s present interest in the two educational institutions reflects the board’s preference for keeping the campus useful to the public.
“It serves the public interest to be able to keep the building as a public building,” he said.
The district began developing its 10-year facilities plan in the winter of 2023 and held a referendum that November. At the time, Christopher said, officials had not determined exactly what would happen to the old campus, but they did know that its history would have to be part of the decision.
“The common denominator in all of it was, whatever happens, we’re going to honor the tradition and legacy of that facility,” he said.
Christopher said again that whoever moves into the building should include an interior display to provide another means of honoring that connection with memorabilia and historical material to provide future visitors some understanding of what the building had been and why its name mattered.
“I think that’s so important that we get that part right,” he said, “so that we can honor the legacy of that building.”
For now, the work is in proposals, an appraisal, contractual discussions and decisions about how the board wants to hear from the interested institutions.
Christopher had expected the district might be closer to a resolution at the November meeting. Instead, board members chose additional time to consider their options.
Over the next two months, he said, he will seek direction from the board chair about the process, including whether Clemson and Tri-County should make presentations. He anticipates contractual matters being discussed in executive session, followed by a board decision.
January is a possibility, not a deadline. February may be more realistic, he said, and any transfer would involve additional steps and regulatory requirements.
If the district sells the property, Christopher said, the proceeds would go into its capital fund for work on other facilities. Without an appraisal or completed proposals, there is no established sale price.
Nor is the property’s size a minor consideration. Twenty-eight acres is a substantial tract in the area between the campus and Clemson Boulevard. Christopher noted that there is additional land behind the school, although he was uncertain about the ownership of neighboring parcels.
The board can still choose a different course. Seeking proposals does not commit it to accepting one.
Christopher said that while the district does not currently plan another formal community-input process, the corridor study produced substantial feedback through surveys and meetings, and he expects informal conversations to continue.
His reading of that feedback is that residents want the property used, not simply retained. They want it to remain a viable educational place even if the school district no longer needs it as a school.
“We’re moving in that direction,” he said. “We’re going to figure it out.”
For old Riverside, the next chapter may involve a university, a technical college, community education, creative work or some combination not yet reduced to a proposal.
What Christopher is offering now is a boundary around the possibilities: the campus may change hands and functions, but it should remain recognizable as Riverside—not only on a sign, but in the account it gives of the people educated there.
