Freedman's Hill, later known as Foley Hill, long served as an educational site for the African American community through a schoolhouse built by the Freedman's Bureau after the Civil War, later destroyed by fire, and through the churches of Asbury Methodist and Mount Sinai Baptist. Built in 1935 as a New Deal project, the present school was first named the Clinton Colored School. It was designed by architect Frank Barber and bore similarities to schools funded by the Rosenwald Fund, the philanthropic organization founded by John Julius Rosenwald that constructed schools in black communities throughout the South. To obtain funding from that organization, the local black community created a Rosenwald School Fund to raise its required share, but the Rural School Building Program ceased operation after Julius Rosenwald's death in 1932 before that could be done. In 1947, Clinton Colored School was renamed Green McAdoo Grammar School in honor of Green L. McAdoo, a former buffalo soldier, landowner, and employee of the Anderson County Courthouse. The school provided education for 1st through 8th grade.