From about 1900 to 1921, the first public school for the black children of Hartsville and the surrounding area operated on this site as Hartsville Graded School. It was renamed Darlington County Training School in 1918, and a new school was built on 6th St. south of this site in 1921. Rev. Henry H. Butler (1887 ~ 1948) served as principal at both sites for a combined 37 years, and the 1921 school was renamed Butler School in his honor in 1939. In 1922, Mt. Pisgah Presbyterian Church grew from a Sunday school begun on this site by Rev. T.J. James, and the church was organized that same year before a new building was erected nearby in 1926. Rev. James also founded Mt. Pisgah Nursery School, which operated in the old graded school here for many years, and his family later donated this property to the city for Pride Park, established in 1986.