The Marion County Museum occupies the former Marion Academy, a building constructed in 1886 by the Marion Academy Society, which was chartered in 1811. The Society operated a private school there for almost 75 years before transferring the building to the Marion County School District. The Marion Graded School later served high school, middle school, and elementary school students until it closed in 1976. The building’s original architecture was restored in 1999 with the replacement of the double portico across the front facade, and the original school bell remains in the cupola with the rope that rang it still hanging in a downstairs gallery. A renovation of the entire building was completed between 2017 and 2021. Its exhibits include a display case in the front hallway dedicated to the late Reverend Senator Clementa Pinckney, first-floor rooms devoted to Marion County, Francis Marion, and fashion, a law enforcement display on the landing, and upstairs exhibits on school life, home life, landscapes and locals, oral history, Armstrong Williams, military history, and women in history. The brick patio includes honorariums and memorials, and the museum presents these collections as pieces of Marion County’s history brought together.