Whittemore School, one of the first African-American schools in Horry County, educated elementary and high school students on this site from 1936 to 1970. Founded in 1870, it was named for Benjamin F. Whittemore (1824-1894), a former Union army chaplain, Freedmen's Bureau educator from 1865 to 1867, and later a state senator and U.S. Congressman. The first school stood just east on Race Path Avenue, and after it burned, classes moved to the Conwayborough Academy on 5th Avenue. A new Whittemore Training School was built at Race Path Avenue and Thompson Street in 1911, with students in grades 1-9 until 1929, 1-10 until 1933, and 1-11 afterward. A new school built here in 1936 burned in 1944, and students used temporary buildings until separate new elementary and high schools were completed in 1954. Grade 12 was added in 1949, and the schools closed when Horry County schools desegregated in 1970.