Mt Zion Institute in Winnsboro Needs Your Help

[IRR-SC]

This beautiful old school needs to be saved in my opinion. Please take a look at the website and do whatever you can to help.

Visit the Friends of Mt Zion Institute Website

[krazeeboi]

^You're right, it should be saved. The question is, who has the will and the means to reuse the building?

[Spartan]

Doesn't matter. This is a historic asset that should be preserved at all costs. The aerial provided on that site shows that this building is situated in an urban setting, and its preservation would not only save the building, but the character of the community around it. If it were destroyed, you'd have a vacant lot, and I can pretty much guarantee you that it will remain vacant for the foreseeable future. If this is destroyed it only shows the towns complete lack of vision and indifference for its own past and future.

[winnsborores]

Doesn't matter. This is a historic asset that should be preserved at all costs. The aerial provided on that site shows that this building is situated in an urban setting, and its preservation would not only save the building, but the character of the community around it. If it were destroyed, you'd have a vacant lot, and I can pretty much guarantee you that it will remain vacant for the foreseeable future. If this is destroyed it only shows the towns complete lack of vision and indifference for its own past and future.

[Spartan]

But has a school not been on this site since the 1700s? How would selling this property and turning it into housing (or something other than its current forum) not change the character of the neighborhood? I will grant you that its not being used as a school right now, but that doesn't mean that it couldn't be at some point in the future. What the community actually decides to do with the building makes no difference to me, just so long as the structure is saved. I think that there is no excuse for destroying history.

[iseethesea]

Interesting thread. I have ties to both Winnsboro and the group trying to save this building, a cause I support. I can't disagree, though, with some of the things winnsborores has to say about the building - it's not particularly remarkable architecturally or aesthetically. If it were sitting on any other site it might not be a huge loss to the town. It's significance, in my mind, has to do with it being the last school building on land that has been nothing but school property for centuries (since 1777, I think). The neighborhood, even most of the historic houses, grew up around the school land and I just can't see that keeping the building and continuing that use threatens the integrity of a neighborhood with that kind of history. Even the nicest of new houses wouldn't add the pedigree that this continuity does.

Maybe the problem winnsborores is having with it is in his/her perception of the neighborhood itself. I know a number of long time residents that accepted the school and related activity as a given in their lives and who support and are working on the effort to save it. Newer neighbors may have only known the area in recent years (it just closed in the early nineties) and see it as a quiet strictly residential neighborhood even though it's only a block off the main street. If that's the case with winnsborores, I'm not sure the comments made are as objective as suggested.

I agree that saving it "at all costs" is over-dramatic and that building a tech school on another site would be "easier" - but it sure wouldn't be cheaper. Fairfield County isn't a rich county and land and funds to build new would cost much more than this project and would probably be years down the road. The Mt. Zion group seems to have come up with a plan that serves two purposes, saving a building a lot of people love and bringing a needed school to the county - and they're willing to raise the money to do it. If it's subjectively sentimental, then so what? I disagree that it is totally that, though, because there are so many supporters that are new in town and have never even seen the building in use. They just recognize what it represents in Winnsboro's history and what it can mean to Winnsboro's future. If thinking of the whole and not the individual is not an objective view, I don't know what is.

One more thought - why would having a small tech school branch be so disruptive? By and large the students would be older and fewer and classes more staggered than at the high school level of earlier years. I'd also think that parking areas and any extra lighting would be done tastefully to add TO the historic aspect of the neighborhood, not detract FROM it.

[hoser]

I have watched the comments regarding the addition to the old neighborhood in Winnsboro of a tech school. I think this would be a very positive addition to the town and could add opportunities for everyone in the neighborhood. The availability for evening lecture series, continuing education classes for adults in computers, art, music, as well as, skills for returning to the work segment are some of the many new opportunities a tech school would open to Winnsboro citizens. I can not imagine why this would be a threat to anyone living in the neighborhood. The traffic situation is not significant since the student could schedule classes when they are not working such as at night and during time when there is no traffic problem. This is a very desirable addition to the community as well as to the economy. The money coming into the community is certainly needed and would help the entire town.

[Spartan]

I can't imagine there being any traffic problem in Winnsboro.

[hoser]

I can't imagine there being any traffic problem in Winnsboro.

[Spartan]

There is no reason other than it won't be "cheap" to fix it. But IMHO, preserving historical buildings is worth any cost.