The Coulter Memorial Academy

The Coulter School, which occupied much of the 300 Block of Second Street, was organized in 1881 by the Reverend James P. Crawford of the Second Presbyterian Church to serve the children of Cheraw's African American community.  Carolina Coulter, the executive-secretary of the National Home Mission Board, helped Crawford start the school with a donation.  The Coulter School was the first school for African Americans in Chesterfield County.  In 1909 Reverend George Long took over as principal of Coulter.  He and his wife, Lillian Ball Long, had the largest impact on the school, which was renamed the Coulter Memorial Academy.  Over the years of its operation the academy served as an elementary school, high school, secondary school, and a junior college.  Eventually the school was incorporated into the Chesterfield County School District and the last Coulter Junior College class graduated in 1949.

Today the large brick Administration building, built in 1924, houses a Free Mason Lodge. The Marshall House (built 1929), which once housed the principal and family of the Coulter Academy, today serves as a preservation project for the Coulter Memorial Alumni Association.