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© Historic Charleston Foundation
Four B&W photographs of Buist Academy (103 Calhoun Street):
a: Street (front) elevation.
b: Street (front) elevation, view of northwest corner of the building.
c-d: Entrance and door. Wrought-iron "Buist Academy" gateway in foreground; ironwork by Philip Simons. (Photo D not scanned.)
The Buist School was constructed 1920. David B. Hyer, architect; James O. Betelle, consulting 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. (Poston, Buildings of Charleston.)