Friends of Mt. Zion Institute

HISTORY

   Mt. Zion Institute occupies a 3+ acre site a block off Congress Street in downtown Winnsboro, S.C.  An adjacent parcel is the site of the old football green and a monument park, and all are a part of a designated Historic Neighborhood.

   The lands were donated after the formation of Mt. Zion College in 1777 and were continuously owned and overseen by an organization formed for that purpose, The Mt. Zion Society, which is still in existence today. In the years between the college and the construction of our buildings in 1936, the site was home to several other educational institutions of note.  It also shares the distinction, with the College of William and Mary in Virginia, of being one of only two remaining campuses in the U. S. that were encampment sites for opposing armies during the American Revolution and the War Between the States.

   The original buildings of the present campus were an elementary school building, cafeteria, auditorium, gymnasium,  high school building, and a residence known as the teacherage.  The elementary school building, built in 1922, burned in 1981, but the remaining buildings were in use until 1991 and are still in place.  In 2006, the Mt. Zion Society, after several attempts at finding the means to preserve them, turned the structures and their site over to the Town of Winnsboro, hoping that some use could be found for them and that the town could  accomplish the task of saving them.  Facing the same hurdles and escalating costs, the city government determined in early 2008 that it appeared to be a lost cause and reluctantly contracted to have the buildings demolished.

    That is when Friends of MZI formed and began the mission to protect the current buildings and historic story of the property and neighborhood.