The Durham’s Chapel School was one of seven Rosenwald schools built in Sumner County, Tennessee. It was tied to the Durham’s Chapel Baptist Church. The school was constructed at $4,250; the Rosenwald Fund provided $700, and the remaining amount was divided between the local Black community and the Tennessee public school funds.
The school is a traditional two-teacher classroom with an additional industrial arts room. Built in 1923, upgrades were made to the school after Brown v. Board of Education with a stove, refrigerator, and kitchen sink.
It was places on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. The school was restored in 2012 at the cost of $40,000.
The hallmark of Stamps Cemetery is the comb graves or tent graves. It’s one of several cemeteries in the South that contain this vernacular form of a grave marker that forms this pyramid shape. They are found almost exclusively in the Appalachian Mountains, most of them in Tennessee. The reason why they were built this way is not known, but it is suspected that Scottish-Irish burial traditions influenced them. It is also speculated that they served a more practical purpose of protecting the graves from wandering livestock.
The grave of Sanford Stamps is a collection of folk influences. There is the tent grave covering, the star, and this headstone form called head and shoulders or discoid.
One interesting aspect of this cemetery that differentiates it from other cemeteries with comb graves is that some headstones have a five-pointed star. A star can represent the crucifixion, the star of Bethlehem, or Christianity. Since some of the stars are inverted downwards, some believe it’s a pentagram. Consequently, the cemetery became known as “The Witch’s Graveyard.” I am more apt to believe it was done because there was a limited understanding of how the star should be drawn, or they were embracing the idea that a point facing downward symbolized Jesus descending upon Earth as the North rose.
“The blessed babe of E. N. Henry was born Januar 27, 1871. Died March 7, 1871.”I often find money on headstones, but its almost exclusively on veterans’s headstones. There were coins on almost all of thencimb graves. To the memory of Mary A. Neal, 1846-1884. The headstone contains a star.
The Mollie Fontaine Taylor House was built in 1886 as a wedding gift from her father, Noland Fontaine Sr., upon her marriage to Dr. William Wood Taylor. It was built across the street from the Fontaine home. Mollie and William lived with her parents until the Victorian house was finished in 1890. Mollie lived in the house until her death.
The home is modest compared to the remaining homes in the Victorian Village. Located on Adams Avenue, the street was once known as Millionaire’s Row because of the number of palatial homes on it. In the 1960s, it became a notorious party house. It is now the Mollie Fontaine Lounge.
The Church of God in Christ (C. O. G. I. C.) was founded in 1897 by removed Baptists Charles Price Jones (1864-1949) and Charles Harrison Mason (1864-1961). The temple is named after Charles Mason, who is interred inside the building. C. O. G. I. C. is the nation’s most prominent Black Pentecostal church.
The Temple began construction in 1940. Henry Taylor was the architect, and Ullyses Ellis was the head of construction. According to the Tennessee Encyclopedia, “The three-story building was constructed of brick, stone, reinforced concrete, and steel. The main auditorium’s seating capacity was five thousand. The balcony seated two thousand, and the assembly room under the balcony also had the capacity to seat two thousand. The temple had a baggage-check registration room, post office, barber shop, beauty salon, first aid and emergency ward, nursery, male and female rest rooms and shower baths, shoe shine parlor, thirty-six administrative offices, two industrial kitchens, two cafeterias, concession area, photographic booth, an elaborate indoor and outdoor sound system, and a modern heating and cooling system. The cost of building Mason Temple was almost a quarter of a million dollars.”
Charles Mason
The church was very active during the Civil Rights Movement. It was the last place Martin Luther King Jr. spoke before being assassinated. He delivered his “Mountaintop” speech.
The Art Moderne building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
The Dr. Christopher M. Roulhac House, located at 810 McLemore Street in Memphis, Tennessee, was built in 1914. The eclectic American Four Square was originally home to the Halpern family, but in 1926, the Roulhac family moved into the home.
Dr. Roulhac graduated from Howard University Medical School in 1910 and moved to Memphis in 1913. He was a surgeon at Mercy Hospital and served as a medical examiner for the Universal Life Insurance Company. He also taught at the University of West Tennessee and was a trustee for Owen College.
Alma Rouhlac Booth, Dr. Rouhlac’s daughter, lived in the home until 2005. In an article about the house, she reminisced about how she was so entranced with a dollhouse replica in the backyard that she was excited about moving into the house. After Mrs. Booth moved, the home was sold to a couple who opened a bed and breakfast. Unfortunately, it looks like it closed in 2016.
It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
Websites store cookies to enhance functionality and personalise your experience. You can manage your preferences, but blocking some cookies may impact site performance and services.
Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.
Name
Description
Duration
Cookie Preferences
This cookie is used to store the user's cookie consent preferences.
