This site has been the home of a Darlington School since 1818. Originally built as the Darlington Academy, it is now occupied by the St. John’s Elementary School. According to local tradition, an early teacher who was also an ardent Mason named the school for the Apostle St. John who was believed to have belonged to the Masonic Order. It is the oldest elementary school in the state. Near the close of the Civil War, Federal Occupation troops turned the school into a hospital for their wounded, using the grounds for their tents. They lined their tents with boards taken from the school and the school was paid war reparations. The beautiful brick building that you see today replaced the old wooden one in the fall of 1902.
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