BCSD Names New Tanner Plantation/Foster Creek Area School

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C.–The Berkeley County Board of Education voted and unanimously approved the name of the new school to be built in the Tanner Plantation/Foster Creek area at its Tuesday, September 27, meeting. The name of the new school will be Bowen’s Corner Elementary School.

Berkeley County School District Board member and Naming Committee Chair, Dr. Kent Murray, said, “The Board’s primary focus in naming the new school, Bowens Corner Elementary School, is to recognize the historic community of Bowens Corner and to celebrate the history of the one room schoolhouse which remained in operation until 1954. This name allows the new school to have an immediate connection to the history of this wonderful community and school.”

Dr. Kent Murray, Mac McQuillin, Kathy Schwalbe, and Board Chairman Jim Hayes served on the naming committee for the new school.

During the naming process, the committee solicited suggestions from community member suggestions. Community members were able to submit their suggestions via a link posted on the Berkeley County School District’s homepage and Facebook page.

The naming committee received more than 200 suggestions from community members in the Hanahan and Goose Creek areas.

Bowen’s Corner is a historic site in Hanahan. A historic marker located in the area reads as follows:

“Bowen’s Corner, an African-American farming community from the mid-19^th century through the late 20^th century, was originally part of a rice plantation established along Goose Creek in 1680. That tract was granted by the Lords Proprietors to Barnard Schenckingh. It was later owned by Benjamin Coachman, member of the Royal Assembly. By 1785 it passed to John Bowen, a state representative, for whom Bowen’s Corner is named. Bowen and later absentee owners through the antebellum and post-Civil War era often employed slaves and freedmen as overseers or managers, giving them an opportunity to work toward self-sufficiency. ‘Bowen’s Old Place’ was subdivided into small farms after the war. By 1936 the Bowen’s Corner community, between the railroad and the Goose Creek Reservoir, was centered on Bethel A.M.E. Church and Bowen’s Corner School, for grades 1-8, which closed in 1954.”