The Ashwood School Gymnasium and Auditorium was built in 1938. This was a product of the rural New Deal resettlement community of Ashwood Plantation, which was the first Resettlement Administration project in South Carolina under the Farm Security Administration. In the Jim Crow South, Ashwood Plantation was a white community and relocated the poor families to farming tracts located in the community to live in homes and farms owned by the government. The idea was to give the poor a chance to start their own farm with the government’s help and eventually take ownership of the property. In 1944, the funding from the government stopped due to the war and all the resettlement projects eventually failed. Ashwood Plantation was the most successful of the projects in South Carolina.

Location: Ashwood, South Carolina