Elmore County Training School opened in Wetumpka, Alabama, on September 20, 1926. The first principal was A. R. Mosely. It was the county’s first high school for Black students and the largest Rosenwald built in th county. The school closed in 1963.
After the school closed, the city built a park around the school for the Black citizens of Wetumpka. The school served as a community center and eventually became the Elmore County Black History Museum
The Baptist Female College Dormitory was built in 1852 in Cuthbert, Georgia, after the Baptist leadership voted in November 1851 to start a women’s college. The school closed in 1863. While attempts to restart the school after the Civil War were unsuccessful, it closed for good in 1875. Afterwards, it was sold off to become private property. Owned by several families over the years, it is also known as the Muse-Dews-Gay-Martin-Blaskow House. The Greek Revival home contributes to the Cuthbert Historic District.
Broad Avenue Elementary was built in the 1930s and was open until 2005. It was abandoned until 2019 when the nonprofit organization Southwest Georgia Rising purchased it in hopes of turning it into a rural innovation center.
In 2024, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation included it in its annual list of Places in Peril. The brickwork and details highlight construction not seen in modern school buildings. The book at the roofline is an interesting touch for the facade.
This website identifies this as the Sardis School and that it is a Rosenwald School. It is a Sardis School since the Sardis CME Church shares the same land. However, the build date of the 1940s and the style indicate it is not a Rosenwald School.
The Cairo School served the Cairo Community of Sumner County, Tennessee, for thirty-five years. Opened in 1923, it was built using the one-room/one-teacher Rosenwald school plan. Students attended the school up to eighth grade.
The community raised $700 for the school’s construction, while the Rosenwald fund provided $500. The Tennessee public school fund matched the community’s contribution and gave $700.
It was one of seven schools built in the county. It is one of two extant schools in the community, and both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Griggs Business and Practical College began as a private home for Joseph Minter and Elizabeth Gregory in 1858. Mrs. Gregory stayed in the brick Italianate home until her death in 1920.
In 1949, Reverend S. A. Owens and C. J. Gaston purchased the home to serve as the permanent home of the Griggs Business and Practical College. The school began five years earlier in Emma Griggs’s home. It was one of three Black colleges in Memphis. Griggs taught the “practical arts” of sewing, cooking, and other domestic activities. Griggs passed away before the school opened in its Vance Avenue location.
Fortunately, the school thrived until the 1970s and the decision was made to close it.
The school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.
