The McMaster School, located at 1106 Pickens Street at the corner of Senate Street in Columbia, is an important early twentieth-century educational landmark constructed in 1911 as part of the statewide movement to improve public-school facilities. Although the school is sometimes associated with the 1905 school-building program, its actual construction date is 1911, when Columbia architects William A. Edwards and Frank C. Walter adapted one of the standardized plans developed under the South Carolina School Building Act of 1905. The school was named for Colonel Fitz William McMaster, an early chairman of the Columbia Board of School Commissioners who played a leading role in establishing the city’s public-school system. McMaster School originally served as a grammar school for Columbia’s white children and remained in operation from 1911 until 1956. Its construction reflects the progressive-era emphasis on improved educational facilities, standardized planning, fire-resistant construction, and more orderly and sanitary school environments.

Architecturally, the McMaster School is a substantial Renaissance Revival-inspired building characterized by a brick-veneered exterior, rusticated first story, cast-stone detailing, belt courses, brick pilasters, quoins, and carefully articulated window openings with gauged arches and keystones. The building’s H-shaped plan was derived from the standardized designs prepared by Edwards and Walter for the state, while its flat roof is concealed behind distinctive castellated parapets. A decorative cornice with dentils and fluted wooden brackets provides a refined classical finish to the upper elevations, giving the school an institutional dignity unusual for a neighborhood grammar school. Two additions have been made to the building, including a circa 1950 addition that incorporates many details sympathetic to the original architecture. After its closure as a public grammar school, the building was acquired by the University of South Carolina in 1960 and renamed McMaster College, continuing its educational use. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997, the McMaster School is significant for both its architectural design and its association with the transformation of public education in South Carolina during the early twentieth century.