Butler Heritage Foundation

It’s difficult to know where you are going if you don’t know where you have been. That’s why Butler Heritage Week is important to Hartsville. Butler High School and its history and legacy are a part of Hartsville and always will be. Generations of young people who passed through the halls of the former historically black high school continue to make their mark and influence their communities.

This year’s week-long observance concluded on Saturday. This marked the 17th year for Butler Heritage Week. Organizers of this year’s celebration of this crucial piece of Hartsville’s diverse history and culture deserve credit for another successful Heritage Week.

One of the highlights of this year’s week of events was the annual Butler Heritage Week Banquet, which featured as guest speaker former NFL star Rufus Bess, a 1974 graduate of Butler who lettered in football, track and baseball and who now teaches in the Minnesota public school system.

Other activities throughout the week included a gospel music concert, A Taste of Butler, an art exhibit and book signing, a community Bible study, a free concert, a family day celebration and parade. Butler Heritage Week is organized each year by the Butler Heritage Foundation and its Board of Directors and held annually during the week of July 4 to recognize the legacy of the former Butler High School, which for more than seven decades played a key role in the lives of so many Hartsville area citizens.

The school, named in honor of well-known educator, civic and religious leader H.H. Butler, was far more than a school. It was a community focal point. The school was closed in 1982. The Butler Heritage Foundation was organized in 1991 by a group of Butler High alumni, former faculty and interested citizens. The foundation is working to make the Butler campus a comprehensive community center that will continue to enrich Hartsville’s cultural life.

At present, the campus is home to the Butler Senior Center and Nutrition Center, a Head Start center, the gymnasium and the Boys and Girls Club of Hartsville. The old administration building is currently being renovated for use as a community center that can host meetings and other special events. The Butler campus will be a centerpiece in the development of a legacy corridor leading into Hartsville. Though the school has long been closed, its influence on the life of our community is ongoing and will be so for years to come.

Butler Heritage Week is one more of those “pleasant surprises” that make Hartsville unique.