The historic Soapstone School will reopen with a celebration in April.

“We’ve just about finished renovating it on the inside, and we’re hoping by April we’ll be able to open it back up,” Mable Owens Clarke told The Pickens County Chronicle on February 11.

“Right now, we’re collecting those old-fashioned desks like when I went to school there. So far, we’ve collected about eight. They’re hard to find. I’ve been in every thrift store trying to find them.”

She has also located a blackboard similar to the blackboard that was in the schoolhouse before someone broke in and stole it. “A lady in Spartanburg had one,” Clarke said. “It was almost like the same one we had on the wall.

“Clemson put a new roof on the schoolhouse,” she added, “and now the floors are being done there. So, we should be able to have it open and have a celebration.”

When the schoolhouse is reopened, a marker will be dedicated. “The marker has just arrived from Ohio, and it’s going to be placed on the grounds permanently, so people can come in and read the marker and know something about history, and history is on both sides of the marker,” Clarke said.

Another important part of the celebration will be the original bell from the Soapstone Baptist Church, which Clarke found, in a sack, in the attic of her late parents’ barn. “I screamed when I saw what was in there,” she said. When the church was burned in the late 1960’s, the bell was the only thing that was left. “Mother had put it in that sack and put it up in the barn, for safety,” Clarke said. “My husband had a frame made, where it can hang in, and it’s going to be placed on the grounds permanently, as well. And I’m going to ring that bell three times that day. And you know why three times? They didn’t have phones like we have now. So, when someone would pass away, they would go to the church, Soapstone Church, and ring the bell three times, and people would come and start gathering.”

After the marker dedication and the ringing of the bell, the schoolhouse will be open for tours.

An exact date in April has not been set yet. “The contractors still have to refurbish the floors, and that’s the last thing we’ve got to do,” she said. “They’ve finished the walls. Once they finish the floors, then we’ll set a date.”