Piney Grove is one of the few remaining oneroom schoolhouses left in Cherokee County. The school building was relocated many years ago from its original site in Antioch to West Cherokee Avenue inside the Blacksburg town limits. A conversation with his 95-year-old father-in-law has sparked Melvin Ware’s interest in learning more about the origins of a one-room schoolhouse outside Blacksburg.

Piney Grove School was located on what is today Ed’s Road in the Antioch community. Ware learned about the school’s existence in a conversation with his father in-law Woodrow Carroll, who passed away July 22.

“Mr. Carroll said that his eleven older brothers and sisters all attended school there until 1920 when a new two-story Antioch School was built,” Ware said. “The new school was located where the Antioch Community Center stands today and is where Mr. Carroll began his education in 1920 at the age of 6.”

The Piney Grove School was among many one-room schoolhouses where children in Cherokee County were educated prior to the forming of the county public school system in 1897. Early schools had one teacher and students were taught at the same time in schoolhouses located around the small communities.

“Mr. Carroll laughed and remarked to me that he only attended Piney Grove for one day — the last day of the 1920 school year as a sort of orientation,” Ware said.

Ware contacted The Gaffney Ledger seeking information about the Piney Grove School after reading a feature about the Potter School in the Sept. 8 Weekly Ledger. Potter School is a tworoom schoolhouse located near the front entrance to Mabel Koon’s property on Potter Road off Green River Road.

Potter School is still standing beneath a covering of kudzu on Koon’s property.

Piney Grove School is presently located behind the Red Door Variety School at 412 West Cherokee Street next to Danny’s Cafe, according to Ware. The Piney Grove School was later moved to Blacksburg where it was first used as a store and later as a storage building.

Early schools like Piney Grove are the focus of a “Back to School” exhibit during October at the Cherokee County History and Arts Museum.

The museum plans to display sketches of old county schools surveyed for Work Progress Administration projects during the Great Depression, director Billy Pennington said. The county historical society has restored the one-room Possum Trot schoolhouse and plans to eventually relocate the school onto the museum site.

Ware hopes the Piney Grove School will receive similar treatment so future students can learn about the early days of public education.

“Despite the fact it’s over 100 years old, the building appears to be in fairly good condition and is perhaps one that should be considered for historic preservation,” Ware said. “(Piney Grove) is an example of how school children were educated in the early years of Cherokee County.”