LIBERTY – The Rosewood Center, best known to Liberty residents as the community building where meetings, parties, receptions and other events are held, has a far deeper history than many people may know.

In 1937, the building was erected by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), an organization President Franklin D. Roosevelt established to give men work after the depression.

Luther Johnson, a Liberty resident, was one of the first students to use the new building in 1937.

“I began there when I was in the second grade and stayed there second grade on up,” Johnson said.

The previous school building had burned when he was in the first grade, he said.

The building was called Liberty Colored Junior High School until 1945 when the name was changed to Liberty Colored High School. It became a full-fledged high school, but high schools then only went to eleventh grade. The school remained a high school until 1955 when the consolidation program did away with smaller community schools.

Johnson was apart of the first class to graduate from Liberty Colored High School in May of 1946.

The school was one of the two high schools for African-American students in Pickens County serving students in Liberty, Norris, Central, Clemson and other areas. In 1955, Liberty Colored High and Simpson High were consolidated into Clearview Colored High School in Easley and remained that way until integration was put into force, Johnson said.

When the high school moved to Easley, the building was renamed Rosewood Elementary because it was on Rosewood Street. The building remained Rosewood Elementary, which held first through eighth grade, until integration took off, which was around 1970.

The building was renamed the Rosewood Center and was used by Pickens County Schools as overflow for some of the schools in the area.

“There were a couple grades that were brought there for Liberty Elementary for about two years,” Johnson said. “After that, they had those children who were getting ready to start first grade there. This remained until the mid-1990’s.”

Since that time, the Rosewood Center has no longer been used as a school. Johnson said the building stood vacant for several years until Liberty First Baptist Church leased it as a youth activity center.

The City of Liberty bought the building and has since used it for town meetings, conferences and other community events.

“That building was really put together,” Johnson said. “It has stood the test of time. It is just like it was when it was first put there. It looks, on the outside, just like it did the first day I walked in there in the second grade. It was well put together.”

Johnson said he attended several of the city meetings when they were deciding what to do with the building.

“Most everyone who has been around Liberty, went to school there,” he said. “We are proud of it. That school gave me my foundation to move on to college and graduate school.”

Liberty Colored High School has been registered in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

During the month of February, The Easley Progress, Pickens Sentinel and Powdersville Post will honor Black History Month. Look for more Black History each week in February.