I love Art Deco, so during my recent trip to Memphis, I knew I would need to visit this school. Memphis architect Noland Van Powell designed the Fairview Junior High School for the Edward Lee Harrison architectural firm. Opening in the fall of 1930, it was built at the cost of $335,000. The Art Deco style was unusual for Memphis. The building stood out with the buff-colored bricks since most schools in town were built with red bricks. It got its name because it was next to the fairgrounds.
During the 1937 Mississippi River flood, the school served as a hospital. In 2012, it went through an $8 million renovation. Luckily, most of the Art Deco details were intact and kept during the renovation. It is now known as the Middle College High School.
It was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The Allen-White School ruins in Whiteville, Tennessee, are the remaining artifacts of a brick Rosenwald School. Initially, the school was known as the Hardeman County Training School. The school began in 1905 in a Masonic lodge building. In 1919, the Rosenwald Foundation funded the building of a new elementary school on land next to the El Canaan Missionary Baptist Church. In 1930, the school added a junior high, and in 1932, it added high school grades. The first graduating class was in 1933. It was the only school for Black students in Hardeman County.
It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 and destroyed by arson in 2012.
Pocahontas School in Hardeman County, Tennessee, is a four-teacher type school. Built in 1924 using Rosenwald funds, the school educated Black schoolchildren until the late 1960s. Despite the passing of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, schools in Hardeman County did not desegregate until more than ten years later.
The school was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
I recently took a trip to Memphis. Like most trips, I planned a circuitous route using back roads. While plotting my path on Google Maps, I noticed a building identified as the LaGrange Rosenwald School. I immediately put it as a stopping point to photograph.
When I arrived in La Grange, I immediately doubted the providence of this building as a Rosenwald. There are no hallmark windows to bring light into the building, and I wondered if it was a heavily modified building. After doing some research, I could not find any confirmation that this building is a Rosenwald. It was a one-room school named the La Grange School.
William Carson identified this as the Ashland School.
Southwest of Carnesville, Georgia, on Highway 59, you will pass the Ebenezer Methodist Church Cemetery and the Hebron Lodge. I have driven past the Hebron Lodge and never stopped. I also had not noticed a building that looked like an early 1900s school at the top of the hill. Imagine my surprise when I did see it. Sadly, I cannot determine the history of the building. Since it shares the land with the lodge and cemetery, I wondered if it was once called the Ebenezer School or Hebron School. This did not help in my search. If you know anything about this building, please let me know.
Founded in 1796, the Hebron Presbyterian Church congregation in Banks County is one of the earliest congregations in north Georgia. The church was built in 1883 and is representative of many rural churches found in the South with the double doors at the entrance, which were used separately by men and women when the sexes did not sit next to each other during church services.
The Hebron Academy is tied to the earlier school on the church’s campus. The first school building was constructed in 1855. At the time, it was a rare school that educated white schoolchildren and the children of the enslaved. The slaveholder could grant permission for anyone they held in bondage to be educated. This continued until a Georgia state law was passed to prevent the education of anyone held in bondage. In 1910, the current school building was constructed, and the old building was moved to be used as a parsonage.
The church’s cemetery highlights a mixture of tombs and markers used over the years. From the head and shoulders grave markers, sometimes called discoids, and the cairns represent earlier markers. Additionally, since it is still an active cemetery, modern markers are mixed throughout it.
The grave of Samuel McKie (1761-1845), who fought in the Revolutionary War, showcases an earlier vault with the addition of a federally issued headstone. The head and shoulders marker of Elizabeth McEntire (1765-1806) is engraved with “Here lies Elizabeth McEntire age 41 yrs. Departed this life 10 August 1806.” It is believed this marker, and others like it, was quarried from local stone.Jane Fleming Ash (1764-1859)The grave of Jennie C. Pruitt (1868-1913) is engraved with the quote, “In my father’s house are many mansions,” from John 14:2-6. This is a frequent inscription in cemeteries.
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