Academy to be sold Monday

Web posted January 3, 1998

By Sean Lengell
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN -- Property that once housed the former St. Angela Academy will be on the auction block Monday.

A foreclosure auction on the 3.2-acre parcel on Berrie Road will take place at 11 a.m. at Aiken County Courthouse.

The property is owned by Aiken businessman Joel Conte.

Mr. Conte obtained a mortgage for the property from Palmetto Federal Savings Bank of South Carolina in 1993 for $108,600.

Another parcel owned by Mr. Conte near the corner of Richland Avenue and Newberry Street originally was scheduled for a foreclosure auction Monday. But since past debts on that parcel have been satisfied, the auction has been canceled, according to bank and court officials.

The academy, which opened in the late 1890s at a site near the corner of Richland Avenue and Pendleton Street, was established primarily as a boarding school for girls. The school also accepted a few male boarders and some Aiken-area students.

The academy later was moved to the site of St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church on York Street.

A new campus for the academy's high school students was built on Berrie Street in 1953 after the Aiken area received an influx of new residents with the opening of the Savannah River Plant. Elementary students remained at the campus on York Street.

The academy closed its doors in 1988.