Sims High School stood here from 1956 to 1970, replacing a 1927 school on Union Boulevard that in 1929 became the first state-accredited high school for African-American students in the upstate. It was named for Rev. A.A. Sims, the founder and first principal from 1927 to 1951. James F. Moorer, principal from 1951 to 1969, also coached the football team to 93 consecutive conference wins from 1946 to 1954. C.A. Powell, who was white, served as the school’s last principal from 1969 to 1970. A new school building was built here in 1956. Its notable alumni included the first black head coach in NCAA Division I-A football, the first coach of a black college basketball team in the National Invitational Tournament, and the first black Chief of Chaplains of the United States Army. Sims High School closed in 1970 with the desegregation of Union County schools, and this building then housed Sims Junior High School from 1970 to 2009 before Sims Middle School opened on Whitmire Hwy in 2009.