City Directories and History: BUIST SCHOOL
Constructed 1910; D. B. Hyer, architect; J. O. Betelle, consult architect
Buist School was built during the days of segregated education. The Charleston school board retained James O. Betelle, America’s leading designer of school buildings, to work with the architect David Hyer on the structure for African American pupils. Construction costs totaled $100,000. A wrought-iron gateway executed by the noted artisan Philip Simmons, an alumnus of the school, leads to the three-story brick building. Although its windows have been altered, some Colonial Revival features remain, including belt coursing, keystones over the windows, a central pavilion, and a decorative parapet. Buist School has been transformed in recent years as a magnet school for elementary age students.
The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston for the Historic Charleston Foundation, 1997
BUIST FAMILY HISTORY:
The Buist family was founded in South Carolina with the arrival in 1793 of Rev. George Buist, D. D. to assume the pastorate of the First (Scots) Presbyterian Church in Charleston. He was born in the County of Fife, Scotland in 1770, the son of Arthur and Catherine Inglis Buist. His grandfather was Henry Buist (c. 1690-c. 1787), a farmer of Orkie, Parish of Kettles, in Fifeshire.[1]
Young George entered the College of Edinburgh in 1787 and was soon recognized as a precocious student. His main field of study was theology, but he also mastered classical studies, science, the arts, and several languages. The faculty recognized “early indications of his superior genius.”[2] He was honored by the College of Edinburgh in 1794 with a Doctor of Divinity degree at the age of 24. During his time in Edinburgh as a very young man, he was made an honorary member of the Edinburgh Philological Society, published an abridgement of Hume’s History of England, and contributed articles to the Encyclopedia Britannica.[3]
In 1793, the Presbyterian Church in Charles Town was seeking a new pastor and sought assistance from the authorities in Edinburgh. The young minister George Buist was recommended to them, and he accepted their call. (To read the whole history of the Buist Family open the More Information link, under the primary image.)
Other sources of interest: Charleston Tax Payers of Charleston, SC in 1860-61 and the Dwelling Houses of Charleston by Alice R.H. Smith – 1917 The HCF may also have additional data at: Past Perfect and further research can be uncovered at: Charleston 1861 Census Schedule or The Charleston City Guide of 1872
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