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CELEBRATING SYMMES HALL OF SCIENCE AND THE HEALTH EDUCATION CENTER
“Dreams are the stuff life is made of.” With those words, Roper Mountain’s director, Darrell Harrison, captured the spirit behind the creation of the Symmes Hall of Science and its Health Education Center.
The dream began in the late 1970s with the Greenville County Medical Society Auxiliary. They imagined a center where students could experience health education in dynamic, hands-on ways. Though they faced daunting challenges—funding, staffing, and community support—they persevered. With help from doctors, dentists, businesses, foundations, and individuals, nearly $700,000 was raised for exhibits and an additional $1.5 million funded the building itself. The Greenville County School District provided staffing and operating funds, turning a dream into reality.
On May 16, 1988, moving vans arrived from Richard Rush Studios in Chicago with the center’s first exhibits. Just months later, on September 15, 1988, the Health Education Center opened with a keynote by Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, the “father of aerobics,” whose lecture emphasized the importance of healthy choices.
The original classrooms offered five themed programs: dental health (featuring a giant set of teeth and gums), nutrition, general anatomy, life begins, and drug awareness. At the heart of the exhibits stood TAM—the Transparent Anatomical Model—where students could watch body systems interact. These immersive experiences promoted knowledge, curiosity, and positive self-concept for thousands of young learners.
For more than 25 years, the Health Hall provided essential health education, long before state standards required it. When curriculum shifts brought those lessons into schools, Symmes Hall evolved, reconfiguring its space for new areas of science. Yet its legacy endures.
Symmes Hall remains a monument to community vision, reminding us what is possible when dreams are nurtured and shared. Generations grew healthier, wiser, and more inspired because of it.
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