Legacy Early College Breaks Ground on New Campus

Legacy Early College (LEC), Greenville’s largest Title I school, broke ground Thursday, Nov. 5, on its new campus in West Greenville. Scholars, families, donors, and community leaders gathered at the 55-acre site at 504 West Marion Road to mark the start of construction on the K4 through 8thgrade campus. When it opens in fall 2028, the campus will serve 1,300 scholars.

The new campus will ease capacity limits at a school that already serves more than 1,600 scholars and has an extensive waiting list. Since William Brown founded LEC in 2009 with approximately 200 elementary scholars, the school has grown into a K4 through 12th grade campus community built around one mission: to see every scholar to and through college.

“I have always believed that a child’s zip code should never determine their future, and today we put a shovel in the ground behind that belief,” said William W. Brown, founder and CEO, Legacy Early College. “It takes a village, but it takes more than a village. It takes donors, neighbors, families, and educators who believe in these scholars as much as we do. This campus is for every child in West Greenville who needs a foot in the door and a seat at the table.”

Moody Nolan, the nation’s largest African American-owned architectural firm, designed the campus, and Harper Construction will build it. In place of traditional hallways, classrooms open into small learning pods and bright, collaborative common areas. The campus will also feature outdoor learning yurts for STEM, science labs, a multimedia center, outdoor classrooms, arts and music spaces, athletic fields, and gyms that support LEC’s daily physical education requirement for every scholar.

The groundbreaking caps a strong year for Legacy Early College. Its high school and middle school both earned Excellent, the state’s top rating, on South Carolina’s 2026 school report cards, and the high school’s four-year graduation rate climbed to 97.8 percent. Legacy Early College was also named one of America’s Healthiest Schools for 2026.

The Marion Road campus is the centerpiece of “Small is BIG,” the $25 million capital campaign driven by Legacy Advancement, LEC’s 501(c)(3) fundraising organization. Community members, businesses, and foundations can learn more about supporting the campaign at legacyadv.org or by contacting Graham Hardaway, VP of Legacy Advancement, at 864-420-1332 orgraham@legacyadv.org.