San Domingo School | |
Location | 11526 Old School Rd., Sharptown, Maryland |
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Coordinates | 38°30′39″N75°43′22″W / 38.51083°N 75.72278°W |
Area | 1.7 acres (0.69 ha) |
Built | 1919 |
Built by | Gravenor, W.D., & Brother |
Architectural style | Late 19th- 20th Century Revivals |
San Domingo School, also known as Sharptown Colored School and Prince Hall Masons Unity Lodge No. 73, is a historic Rosenwald School building located at Sharptown, Wicomico County, Maryland. It was built in 1919, and is a two-story, rectangular frame building with a hipped roof. It is one of four surviving Rosenwald schools in Wicomico County. The school had only four teachers and remained in use as a school until 1957. [1]
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. [2]
The community of San Domingo first appeared in the 1820 census record from Somerset County. At this time, the community had no name; it was only represented by 106 undivided households headed by freed black people. [3] San Domingo is believed to be named after Santo Domingo, a location in the Dominican Republic where the first successful slave revolt took place. [3] The intention of choosing the name San Domingo is unknown, one possibility is that it was meant to act as a warning to those who would wish to harm its members. [3] The community itself was built on land owned by its members, something that was rare in a time when most freed black people lived and worked on land owned by others. [3] San Domingo had its own businesses, church, and school that the members ran making it a self-sufficient community. [4]
The Black community all over Maryland's Eastern Shore wasn’t given the resources to have an equitable access to education until 1872 when it was legally implemented, even though Freedman’s Bureau was making efforts before this to provide them with some education. [5] The San Domingo school was one of many schools created during the time of Julius Rosenwald’s Fund he created after becoming a partial owner of the Sears, Roebuck Co. With Booker T. Washington. The funding came from the local Black community, Rosenwald, and The Salisbury High school contributing to creating the school in San Domingo. [6]
It wasn't until 2002 when the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced that all remaining Rosenwald schools are on its list of most endangered historic places. [7] Before this announcement, alumni who once attended what used to be the school, were reaching into their own pockets and partnering with local government to raise funding for the restoration of the building. [7] In order for the grants to be accessed, the restoration had to keep as much of the original flooring, windows, architectural structure, etc. as possible. [7] Very minor changes were done to the building in order for it to be more useful today as a Cultural Center. [7] Roughly $200,000 in grants were given to help restore this historic building so it can not only be remembered, but also used as a Cultural Center for its community. [7] This funding came from a variety of organizations including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Maryland Historical Trust, Preservation Maryland, and the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore. [7] Local donations were also accepted. Some organizations include The American Muslim Mission, Most Worship Prince Hall Grand Lodge, Mardela Middle and High School. Some individuals who donated are John Quinton descendent Alma Hackett, Harold and Ilse Henson, and Keith Nicholas (see photo). A plaque is hung in the main room of the Cultural Center to show those who donated to help keep this historical building alive.
Wicomico County is located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Maryland, on the Delmarva Peninsula. As of the 2020 census, the population was 103,588. The county seat is Salisbury. The county was named for the Wicomico River, which in turn derives its name from the Algonquian language words wicko mekee, meaning "a place where houses are built," apparently referring to a Native American town on the banks. The county is included in the Salisbury, MD-DE Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by congressional charter to support the preservation of America’s diverse historic buildings, neighborhoods, and heritage through its programs, resources, and advocacy.
Salisbury is a city in and the county seat of Wicomico County, Maryland, United States. Salisbury is the largest city in the state's Eastern Shore region, with a population of 33,050 at the 2020 census. Salisbury is the principal city of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is the commercial hub of the Delmarva Peninsula, which was long devoted to agriculture and had a southern culture. It calls itself "The Comfortable Side of Coastal".
The Rosenwald School project built more than 5,000 schools, shops, and teacher homes in the United States primarily for the education of African-American children in the South during the early 20th century. The project was the product of the partnership of Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish-American clothier who became part-owner and president of Sears, Roebuck and Company and the African-American leader, educator, and philanthropist Booker T. Washington, who was president of the Tuskegee Institute.
Cairo Rosenwald School is a former school for African-American children located in the unincorporated community of Cairo, Sumner County, Tennessee. It was one of seven Rosenwald schools built in the county.
Freetown Rosenwald School is a historic Rosenwald school building in the historic African American community of Freetown at Glen Burnie, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. It is a simple, one-story, gable-roofed, rectangular frame building. The exterior walls are sheathed in aluminum siding and the gable roof is covered with asphalt shingles and displays minimal overhang. It was built in 1924–25, by the school construction program of the Julius Rosenwald Fund, to serve the local African American community. It is one of ten Rosenwald Schools surviving in Anne Arundel County.
Pemberton Hall is a historic home located at Pemberton Park in Salisbury, Wicomico County, Maryland, United States. It is a 1+1⁄2-story, three-bay, Flemish bond brick house with a gambrel roof. The construction date of "1741" is scratched in a brick above the side door.
Union Station is a historic railway station located at Salisbury, Wicomico County, Maryland, United States. It was constructed in 1913–14, near the junction where the New York, Philadelphia & Norfolk Railroad intersected with the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railroad in the center of Salisbury. Both railroads became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). It has a 1+1⁄2-story, Flemish bond brick main block covered by a medium-pitched hip roof sheathed in slate, with single-story wings. From the 1920s to the 1950s, the PRR ran several passenger trains a day, including the Del-Mar-Va Express, through the station, north–south from Philadelphia to Cape Charles, Virginia.
The Tankersley Rosenwald School, also known as the Tankersley Elementary School, is a historic American Craftsman-style school building in Hope Hull, Alabama, a suburb of Montgomery. This Rosenwald School building was built in 1922 to serve the local African American community. The money to build the school was provided, in part, by the Julius Rosenwald Fund. It was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on June 26, 2003, and to the National Register of Historic Places as a part of The Rosenwald School Building Fund and Associated Buildings Multiple Property Submission on January 22, 2009.
The Second Union School is a historic Rosenwald school building for African-American children located near Fife, in western Goochland County, Virginia. It was built in 1918, as a two-teacher school, near Second Union Baptist Church, which had been founded in 1865 as an independent black congregation.
The Mt. Olive Rosenwald School, on Bradley Rd. 45 in Mt. Olive, Bradley County, Arkansas is a wood frame Colonial Revival schoolhouse built in 1927. It is one of five buildings in the county that was funded by The Rosenwald Fund, established by philanthropist Julius Rosenwald to further the education of rural African Americans. It is not known when the building ceased to be used as a school, but classes were offered as late as 1949.
Rosenwald School is a Rosenwald school on Arkansas Highway 26 in Delight, Arkansas. The school, a single-story wood-frame structure with a gable roof, was built in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration. Philanthropist Julius Rosenwald sponsored the Rosenwald schools to provide education for African-Americans in rural communities; the Julius Rosenwald Fund helped build 389 schools in Arkansas, including the one in Delight. The school closed in the 1970s, when many of the Rosenwald schools closed due to desegregation. It is now used as a local community center.
Cadentown School in Lexington, Kentucky was a primary public school for black children in the segregated Fayette County Public Schools from about 1879 to 1922. The building that originally housed Cadentown School, located at 705 Caden Lane, is no longer extant. However, the Rosenwald Fund School is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Fayette County.
The Marley Neck Rosenwald School is a historic school building located at 7780 Solley Road in Glen Burnie, Maryland. It is a single story wood-frame structure measuring 68 by 20 feet, with a gable roof. The school was built in 1927 with design and funding assistance from the Rosenwald Fund, and served the area's African-American students. Out of the original twenty three built, it is one of the ten surviving Rosenwald schools in the county.
Matthew Williams was a black man lynched by a white mob in Salisbury, Maryland on December 4, 1931.
Claudia Stack was an educator, writer, and documentary filmmaker. Her film productions included “Under the Kudzu” (2012) and “Carrie Mae: An American Life” (2015), both of which focused on schools that African American families helped to build during the segregation era. African American families in the South built schools of many different kinds from Reconstruction through the 1950s. Rosenwald schools form the most recognizable part of this school-building movement. Rosenwald schools were schools that African American communities built in partnership with the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which from 1912 to 1932 helped to build almost 5,000 school buildings across the South.
Eleanor Roosevelt School, also known as the Eleanor Roosevelt Vocational School for Colored Youth, Warm Springs Negro School, and the Eleanor Roosevelt Rosenwald School, which operated as a school from March 18, 1937 until 1972, was a historical Black community school located at 350 Parham Street at Leverette Hill Road in Warm Springs, Georgia. As of May 3, 2010, the school is listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Meriwether County, Georgia.
The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is a program formed in 2017 to aid stewards of Black cultural sites throughout the nation in preserving both physical landmarks, their material collections and associated narratives. It was organized under the auspices of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The initiative which awards grants to select applicants and advocates of Black history has been led by architectural historian Brent Leggs since 2019. It is the largest program in America to preserve places associated with Black history.
Washington Graded School is a historic school located in Rappahannock County, Virginia. It was constructed around 1923 as a two-teacher school. The building is a "Rosenwald School". Rosenwald schools refer to those buildings constructed for the education of African-American students, with financial support and plans provided by the Rosenwald Fund. Julius Rosenwald, a Chicago philanthropist and president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, along with Booker T. Washington, the principal of Tuskegee Institute, worked with Black communities across the south to build more than 5,000 schools for Black children. Built in 79 localities in Virginia, about half shared the Washington School two-teacher design. The Washington School, which closed in 1963, retains the early look and feel of its rural setting, and exhibits historic integrity of design, workmanship, and materials.
Okahumpka Rosenwald School is a historic Rosenwald School building in rural Okahumpka, Florida, United States. It was built in 1929 and was used as a school for African American children in the community. It is one of the two remaining Rosenwald Schools in Lake County Florida.