I often go down rabbit holes looking for information. This can mean looking at random public domain books and reports. I decided to start sharing some of the images I find. This image is from the 1921 Fiftieth Annual Report of the Department of Education to the General Assembly of the State of Georgia.
I believe this school is the Greenfield Academy, and that part of it is still standing according to Google Street View.
Sitting along Old Federal Road in Franklin County, Georgia is the Plain View School. It is a contributing building to the McConnell Historic District. It was built in 1905 and used as a school until 1955.
For photos on the inside, please visit the Cocoa Smiles blog.
Prince Frederick’s Chapel is an Episcopal church serving nearby rice plantations. The Gothic Revival church was designed by architect Louis J. Barbot, who designed several buildings in Charleston, and later served as the city’s engineer.
The cornerstone of this church was laid in 1859 after the first church was replaced. With a break caused by the Civil War, the church was not completed until 1876. With the end of slavery, many rice plantations were no longer profitable, so people began to move away, which diminished the congregation’s size. Newspapers reported by the 1930s that the church was only being used for special holiday services. By the 1940s, the church was no longer holding services.
Due to it’s instability, it was determined to take down the three walls of the church and fortify the front facade. It was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Founded in 1926 on the corner of Ivanhoe Plantation, this land was donated by Mrs. Clarissa Dye and her son Rowland Dye to start a one-room schoolhouse. They were the direct descendants of Charles Alden Rowland, the founder of Ivanhoe Plantation.
The school was started when Jim Hall, a sharecropper on Ivanhoe Plantation, asked the Dyes about the possibility of getting land to start the school. When it opened, there were no glass windows, just shutters. It had a white steeple roof. Savella Hall, Jim’s wife, was the first teacher at the school.
Like so many schools, the building had other uses. On the weekend, it served as the benevolent society.
Thank you to the Burke County Archives for confirming the identification of the building and sharing the older photo of the school. Information on the school was pulled from Eugenia Mills Fulcher’s 1999 dissertation, “Dreams do come true: How rural one- and two-room schools influenced the lives of African Americans in Burke County, Georgia, 1930-1955.”
Designed by George Barber, this Queen Anne was built in 1896. It was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in the 1930s.
The Good Shepherd Episcopal Church and School are two buildings that remain of a historic Black community known as Pennick in Glynn County, Georgia. The school and church were founded by Deaconess Anna Alexander in the early 20th Century. Deaconess Alexander was the first Black deaconess in the Episcopal Church. in 1998, she was named a Saint of Georgia by the Diocese of Georgia.
The school building is one of my favorite schoolhouses. It is listed as a Place in Peril by The Georgia Trust of Historic Preservation.
Deaconess Alexander’s final resting place is in front of the schoolhouse.
