Washington School (Washington, Virginia)

Last updated
Washington Graded School
Washington Graded School in Washington, Virginia.jpg
The building in 2019
USA Virginia location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location267 Piedmont Avenue, Washington, Virginia
Coordinates 38°42′47″N78°9′53″W / 38.71306°N 78.16472°W / 38.71306; -78.16472 Coordinates: 38°42′47″N78°9′53″W / 38.71306°N 78.16472°W / 38.71306; -78.16472
Area2 acres (0.81 ha)
Built1923 (1923)
ArchitectSamuel Smith
Architectural styleBungalow/craftsman
MPS Rosenwald Schools in Virginia MPS
NRHP reference No. 100003349
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJanuary 24, 2019 [1]
Designated VLRJune 21, 2018

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. [2] 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. [3] 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.

Washington School was built in 1924 after the Parents’ Civic League, a local African-American organization, donated land to the school district. Financial contributions to construct the two-teacher school came from the Black community ($1,200), the county ($1,600), and the Julius Rosenwald Fund ($700), which also supplied the building plans, according to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. [4]

The school has been designated as a Virginia Historic Landmark and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in January 2019. [5] [6]

Related Research Articles

Booker T. Washington American educator, author, orator and adviser

Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African American community and of the contemporary black elite. Washington was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. They were newly oppressed in the South by disenfranchisement and the Jim Crow discriminatory laws enacted in the post-Reconstruction Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Tuskegee University Private, historically black university located in Tuskegee, Alabama, USA

Tuskegee University is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. The campus is designated as the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site by the National Park Service. The university was home to scientist George Washington Carver and to World War II's Tuskegee Airmen.

Julius Rosenwald American philanthropist

Julius Rosenwald was an American businessman and philanthropist. He is best known as a part-owner and leader of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and for establishing the Rosenwald Fund, which donated millions in matching funds to promote vocational or technical education. In 1919 he was appointed to the Chicago Commission on Race Relations. He was also the principal founder and backer for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, to which he gave more than $5 million and served as president from 1927 to 1932.

Rosenwald School Schools in the United States

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.

Morven, Virginia Unincorporated community in Virginia, United States

Morven is a rural unincorporated community in northwestern Amelia County just south of the Appomattox River in the U.S. state of Virginia. It lies at the intersection of SR 681 and SR 616.

Cairo Rosenwald School Historic building in Cairo, Tennessee

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.

Black school

Black schools, also referred to as "colored" schools, were racially segregated schools in the United States that originated after the American Civil War and Reconstruction era. The phenomenon began in the late 1860s during Reconstruction era when Southern states under biracial Republican governments created public schools for the ex enslaved. They were typically segregated. After 1877, conservative whites took control across the South. They continued the black schools, but at a much lower funding rate than white schools.

Beauregard Parish Training School United States historic place

The Beauregard Parish Training School in DeRidder, Louisiana, was a school for black students and black teachers in training. The two school buildings, located on the original property at the corner of Martin Luther King Drive and Alexandria Street, were the first African-American related structures in southwestern Louisiana to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places, on March 1, 1996.

Earls is a rural unincorporated community in Amelia County in the U.S. state of Virginia. Earls lies along SR 153 at the southern terminus of SR 641, 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the Amelia-Nottoway county line.

Rodophil, Virginia Unincorporated community in Virginia, United States

Rodophil is a rural unincorporated community in western Amelia County in the U.S. state of Virginia, located at the intersection of SR 616 and the southern terminus of SR 620. It straddles the border of ZIP codes 23002 and 23083 (Jetersville), and is served by the Paineville volunteer fire department.

Walker–Grant School United States historic place

Walker–Grant School is a historic school in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The school was built in 1938 and was the first publicly supported black high school in Fredericksburg. The school was named for Joseph Walker and Jason Grant (1861–1951) who worked to establish the school. The Art Deco designed school was added to the National Register of Historic Places in October 1998.

Second Union School United States historic place

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.

Cadentown School School in Lexington, Kentucky

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.

Scrabble School United States historic place

Scrabble School is a historic Rosenwald school for African-American children located near Castleton, Rappahannock County, Virginia. It was built in 1921–1922, and is a one-story, wood-frame building clad in rough-cast stucco siding. The building sits on a poured concrete foundation. It features overhanging eaves, a wood cornice, exposed rafter tails, and decorative corner brackets in the American Craftsman style. Also on the property are the contributing concrete block coal house/shed and septic tanks / privy sites. The school was permanently closed in 1968.

Greensville County Training School United States historic place

Greensville County Training School, also known as the Greensville County Learning Center, is a historic Rosenwald school building located at Emporia, Virginia. It was built in 1929, and is a single story, "U"-shaped brick building. It consists of a front hyphen that connects two wings containing classrooms, while an auditorium, office space, and a library form the interior central space. A classroom addition was constructed in 1934. It was constructed for the education of African-American students, and closed in the 1960s following desegregation of the public schools.

Rosenwald Junior College, located in Panama City, Florida, opened its doors in 1958. It was one of eleven black junior colleges founded in the late 1950s at the initiative of the Florida Legislature. Since racial integration in schools was prohibited by the Florida Constitution of 1885 then in effect, the Legislature wished to avoid the integration mandated in the unanimous Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954 by demonstrating that a "separate but equal" higher education system existed in Florida for African Americans.

Fife is an unincorporated community in Goochland County, Virginia. It is about 11.4 miles northwest of the county seat, Goochland, via Rte. 6. It has the oldest surviving Rosenwald school in the county, built in 1918 with assistance from Chicago philanthropist Julius Rosenwald. Second Union School is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Cocoa Junior High School United States historic place

Cocoa Junior High School is a historic school building in Cocoa, Florida. Built in 1923-24, it is one of the oldest remaining Rosenwald Schools in Florida. After the school closed in 1954, the building served as a community center and later as an African-American history museum.

Eleanor Roosevelt School United States historic place

Eleanor Roosevelt School, also known as the Eleanor Roosevelt Vocational School for Colored Youth, Warm Springs Negro School, and the Eleanor Roosevelt Rosenwald School 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.

Lincoln Heights School United States historic place

Lincoln Heights School was a historic six-teacher Rosenwald School. Built-in 1924, the buildings of the school are now listed with National Register of Historic Places for its significance in education of African American children across Wilkes County, North Carolina.

References

  1. "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form" (PDF). US Department of the Interior. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  2. McCaslin, John (Jul 9, 2018). "Washington school now historic". Rappahannock News. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  3. Saias, Brooke (Jul 13, 2021). "The Fight to Preserve Rosenwald Schools". Education Week. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  4. McCaslin, John (Apr 27, 2019). "Historical highway marker going up at former Washington Rosenwald School". Rappahannock News. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  5. "Washington School". DHR - Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  6. Bergstrom, Lisa. "Press Release: Preservation Virginia Completes Architectural Survey of Historic African American Rosenwald Schools". Preservation Virginia. Preservation Virginia. Retrieved 22 February 2022.