Finley High School

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2025.

From the record

One of 19 National Register listings published here for Chester County · listed in 2025 · category: Building.

Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. 112 Caldwell Street, Chester, 29706
When was it listed? January 2025
Category. building
Also known as. Equalization Schools in South Carolina, 1951-1960
Census division. Chester
National Register reference number. 100011403 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

165 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 165 fires within 5 miles of Finley High School between 1992 and 2020, burning about 380 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 7 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	88
Debris and open burning	45
Equipment and vehicle use	7
Misuse of fire by a minor	7
Arson/incendiarism	7
Railroad operations and maintenance	5
Smoking	2
Natural	2
Recreation and ceremony	1
Other causes	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 1997	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
4 September 1999	Debris and open burning	under an acre	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
30 September 1994	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
23 September 2019	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
22 September 2010	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
2 September 1999	Debris and open burning	5.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
8 August 2002	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
5 August 1998	Arson/incendiarism	4.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named

Every fire recorded in Chester County

Storms near this property

60 of 81 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chester, the town this property stands in, in 81 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 48 thunderstorm wind, 24 hail, 3 tornado, 2 flood. The reports record 1 death. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
May 2020	Lightning	Chester	1 killed	County comms reported a 32-year-old man was struck and killed by lightning when getting out of his vehicle on York St.
September 2004	Tornado (F1)	Chester	$100,000	This brief tornado blew down several trees and damaged or destroyed 2 small trailers shortly after touching down. It then moved north and lifted a portion of the roof from a well-constructed home. The garage wall was blown inward about 1 foot at this same location. A carport next to the home was also detroyed. Several trees were blown down and a small trailer destroyed at a hunting club before the tornado lifted.
March 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	$100,000	no account filed
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	$75,000	Two outbuildings were destroyed and a cinderblock well house was damaged at Dixie Stockyard along highway 21 near the York Co line. Shingles were torn off a house and a resteraunt on the premises. Two trees were blown down in this area, including a large oak tree that fell on and heavily damaged a vacant house.
June 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	$45,000	no account filed
April 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	$15,000	no account filed
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	$5,000	Trees were blown down. One tree fell on a car.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	$3,000	Numerous trees snapped off and uprooted around highway 97 northwest of Chester. In addition, some storage buildings were picked up and tossed about 50 feet. The damage was concentrated along a 2 to 3 mile long, one half mile wide swath. A home in the area received some damage to a chimney and an antenna.
March 2002	Flood	Chester	$2,000	Torrential rainfall caused local flooding in Chester. Water entered at least 2 homes within a low-lying area of town.
June 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	$1,000	A large tree was blown onto part of a house, causing relatively minor damage.
May 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	$1,000	Trees and powerlines were blown down.
April 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	$1,000	A few trees were blown down.
March 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Public reported (via social media) a couple of trees blown down around the city of Chester.
August 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	County comms reported multiple trees blown down between Chester and Great Falls.
August 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	County comms reported trees and power lines blown down on McFadden St.
August 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Amateur radio operator reported trees blown down along Harris and Hardin streets.
June 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Highway Patrol reported trees blown down on Beltline Rd, Brendale Dr in Chester, and on Hardin Strait Rd at York St.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	County comms reported multiple trees blown down on Park Dr.
May 2014	Hail	Chester	-	Public reported nickel size hail.
May 2014	Hail	Chester	-	Public reported up to golf ball size hail north of the Leeds community.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	A tree was blown down on Hillbright Rd close to highway 72. Another tree was blown down nearby on Stringfellow Rd near highway 72.
August 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Trees were blown down on the east side of Chester, including on Hardin St and Beltline Rd.
December 2009	Heavy Rain	Chester	-	Saluda Rd was closed at the intersection of Foote St due to urban flooding.
March 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Trees and power lines blown down across the northern half of the county.
March 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Trees and power lines blown down across the northern half of the county.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Two trees were blown down on Aiken Creek Rd.
June 2008	Hail	Chester	-	Hail reported from Chester west to near the Union county line.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Trees were blown down.
June 2007	Hail	Chester	-	Reported near the intersection of Boyd Rd and Great Falls Rd.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Tees blown down along highway 72 near the York County line.
April 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	A few large limbs blown down.
April 2007	Hail	Chester	-	Reported on Yarborough Rd.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Trees blown down on McCandless Rd and on a golf course.
June 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Seven trees down, some uprooted, some snapped off approximately 8 feet from the ground on Yarborough Rd and West Chester School Rd.
May 2006	Hail	Chester	-	One tree was also downed at highway 97 and Aiken Creek Rd.
November 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Two trees blown down near Chester.
September 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	A few trees were blown down along highway 72. There were also some power outages in the area.
November 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Trees blown down along highway 215 and highway 72 in the southwest part of the county.
November 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Trees were blown down at highway 9 and Baton Rouge Rd.
February 2003	Flash Flood	Chester	-	After a night of steady rainfall, heavier early afternoon showers resulted in flooding along several creeks and streams in the eastern half of the county. Some of these overflowing streams flooded adjacent roads.
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Trees were blown down.
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Numerous trees were blown down.
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Highway patrol reported numerous trees down between Chester and Richburg.
July 2001	Flood	Chester	-	Bypass flooded in low spots during slow moving thunderstorms. No known stream flooding.
August 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Trees and power lines blown down halfway between Chester and Rock Hill.
September 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Several trees were blown down.
September 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	Many trees were blown down and one tree fell on a house.
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	A number of trees and power lines were blown down in and around the city.
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	A severe wind blew a roof off a store and onto a vehicle.
September 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Chester	-	A few trees and power lines were blown down from Chester to the east of town.
August 1994	Tornado (F1)	Chester	-	Tornado touched down near Woods Ferry Road between highways 9 and 72 blowing down trees.
April 1993	Hail	Chester	-	Hail up to golfball-size was reported by the sheriff's office.
April 2011	Hail	Chester	-	no account filed
April 2008	Hail	Chester	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Chester	-	no account filed
June 2007	Hail	Chester	-	no account filed
April 2007	Hail	Chester	-	no account filed
July 2006	Hail	Chester	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Chester	-	no account filed
May 2005	Hail	Chester	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Chester County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Chester Historic District (Boundary Increase)	0.7 miles	1988
Kumler Hall	0.8 miles	1983
Chester City Hall and Opera House	0.8 miles	1973
Chester Historic District	0.8 miles	1972
Lewis Inn	5.8 miles	1971
James Phinney House	6.0 miles	2016

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 100011403 in Record Group 79.
Chester County	All 19 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.