Saxon, SC

Saxon is a Spartanburg County census-designated place with roots in the region’s textile-mill villages. The 2020 census counted 3,896 residents. Saxon Methodist Church was organized in 1903 to serve the Saxon Mill Village, where early members worshiped in homes before a small church was built in 1908. That mill-era history places Saxon inside the industrial story of the Spartanburg Upstate, even though the place is now mapped as a CDP rather than an incorporated town. Spartanburg Methodist College is Saxon’s most recognizable present-day institution.

The two-year college grew from the Textile Industrial Institute, founded in 1911 to educate young people connected to southern textile work; the early program alternated a week of classes with a week in the mill. Most of Saxon is in Spartanburg County School District 6, with a small section in District 7. Saxon’s local scoop is a South Carolina community where a former mill village, a long-running Methodist college, and two school districts share one Spartanburg County address.