As a child in the 1950s, Joann Smith didn't have far to walk to school.
"We just walked across Meeting Street, and we were right there," the 73-year-old Charleston resident said of the former Henry P. Archer Elementary School at Nassau and Jackson streets on the city's peninsula.
The house where she grew up is now the site of Interstate 26, but the school building, though it's been closed for the better part of 40 years, remains.
It's now being transformed into housing for low-income seniors. Studio, one- and two-bedroom units will range from $510 a month to $1,312 a month for qualified applicants.
Opening in 1936 in what later became Charleston's predominantly Black East Side neighborhood until more recently, the upper peninsula school was where civil rights icon Septima P. Clark taught in the 1950s before she was fired from the school district for working for the NAACP.
Framing is shown in the former auditorium at the Henry P. Archer Elementary School that has been closed for the better part of 40 years since 1980, except during a short stint for students from a nearby school while their classrooms were being rebuilt. Paul Cheney/Provided
That was before desegregation began across South Carolina in the 1960s.
In 1980, Archer Elementary closed. The two-story brick structure, with its arched entrance and multiple chimneys, remained vacant for several years, though it was used briefly in the latter part of the current century's first decade to house students from Sanders-Clyde Elementary while their school was being rebuilt two blocks away.
By next spring, the Archer School will return to life.
Since last summer, the stately structure, with its sturdy hardwood floors, original brick and handsome ironwork, has been undergoing a makeover.
When the former elementary school reopens, it will see Charleston residents from the opposite end of the age spectrum. The building is being redeveloped into 89 residential units for low-income seniors.
The $42 million overhaul is a joint venture of the Humanities Foundation and the James Doran Co.
The Humanities Foundation purchased the property from the Charleston County School District in 2020, using funds from the city's affordable housing bond fund, which also provided additional financial assistance with predevelopment costs.
The city considered buying the old school in 2018 but abandoned the effort after determining renovation would be too costly and complicated since it must be retrofitted structurally to make it more resilient to earthquakes.
The school district had discovered in 2010 that a number of downtown school buildings couldn't withstand a 5.0-magnitude earthquake.
The auditorium in the former Henry P. Archer Elementary School at Nassau and Jackson streets in Charleston. Sanders-Clyde Elementary used the school, built in the 1930s, for a few years after the turn of the current century while a new Sanders-Clyde school was being built. The former Archer school is now being transformed into apartments for low-income seniors. Paul Cheney/Trident Construction/Provided
Still, the Archer site was costing taxpayers $18,000 a year to maintain by 2017 and it had not been used since Sanders-Clyde students returned to their new school building down the street seven years earlier.
The project ended up getting support from a combination of financial institutions, nonprofits and government agencies. Those include the Charleston Housing Authority, South Carolina Housing, The Climb Fund, Red Stone Equity, Sugar Creek Capital, Chase Bank and Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust.Â
"It is really important for us to save as much as we can of the original structure," said Tracy Doran, co-founder and president of the Humanities Foundation. "The school building is of great historical significance to the city."
The building is now being redeveloped by Charleston-based Trident Construction, which has been instructed to save as much of the structure as possible while also making it comfortable and safe for senior residents.
Trident enlisted the aid of structural engineering firm Atlantic Engineering of Mount Pleasant.
"They’ve developed strategies to allow as much of the existing structure to remain in an effort to incorporate a great deal of the original building into the design," said Chris Burrell, senior project manager at Trident Construction.
In the center of the old school is an auditorium with large windows.
The former Henry P. Archer Elementary School, which opened in 1936 to serve Charleston's Black students on the upper peninsula, is in the process of a makeover to convert it to housing for low-income seniors. Warren L. Wise/Staff
Work crews will transform the space into a common area where future residents can socialize with each other and guests. Parts of the stage will become apartments, much like the rest of the building.
"The original school has the traditional lines of the old Charleston architecture," said Lowcountry architect Martin Miller of Martin Riley Associates. "Much of the building’s style was preserved, including the prominent masonry brickwork and iconic chimneys."
He also cited the building's "detailed masonry walls, wide chimneys, large windows and door openings" that were worth saving.
"We determined the reconfiguration of classrooms to apartments could be completed while saving these elements," Miller said.
The original 18-room schoolhouse, built at a cost of $135,000 under the Roosevelt administration's New Deal public works program and the later expansions, will be transformed into 28 affordable housing units while 61 others are being created through new construction around the old Archer elementary.
Renovating the nearly nine-decade-old building to help make it as resistant as possible to hurricanes and earthquakes hasn't come without complications.
The arched windows in the auditorium at the former Henry P. Archer Elementary School are shown as the peninsular Charleston building undergoes an overhaul to transform it into housing for low-income seniors. Paul Cheney/Provided
"It’s definitely been challenging to install the seismic upgrade components, due to difficulties in accessing all areas of the building where seismic clips/bracing need to be installed," Burrell said. "Our team worked in the attic most of last summer installing these seismic upgrades in very high temperatures."
The Humanities Foundation encourages retired teachers, longtime Eastside residents and others who meet income qualifications to apply to become residents of the Archer School Apartments. The foundation also will work with Charleston County School District to house teachers over 55.
When completed, the site of the renovated structure and additions will include a garden, landscaped walking paths and a pavilion. The Humanities Foundation also plans to provide services for residents.