11 Most Endangered

Rosenwald Schools

Year Listed: 2002
Location: Charleston , South Carolina
Current Status: Endangered
Threat: Deterioration, Natural Forces, Neglect

Latest News

Rosenwald schools will be featured in four educational sessions and a field session at the 2009 National Preservation Conference, October 13 – 17, in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Rosenwald School before

Credit: Columbia Historical Museum

Significance

In 1912, Julius Rosenwald, the millionaire son of German-Jewish immigrants and president of Sears, Roebuck & Co., teamed up with Booker T. Washington, the country's preeminent African American educator, on an innovative program to improve education for blacks in the south. Over the next 20 years, Rosenwald and his Julius Rosenwald Fund used a pioneering system of matching grants to help construct more than 5,300 schools and related buildings in 15 Southern and Southwestern states. Today, these modest schools, all but forgotten, are disappearing fast.

In 2002, the National Trust for Historic Preservation formed a special initiative in the Southern Office specifically to address Rosenwald school preservation issues that now span a 14-state region.

Updates

In February 2009, Lowe's and the National Trust for Historic Preservation once again teamed up to give grants to 15 Rosenwald schools in 7 states.

In March 2008 the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Lowe's announced a joint initiative to restore 17 iconic schools that represent an important chapter in United States history. Lowe's provided a grant of $1 million to the National Trust for Historic Preservation to save 17 Rosenwald schools from permanent disrepair and, through adaptive reuse, to transform them into once-again vibrant facilities in their communities.

Since 2002, the Rosenwald Schools Initiative has launched a massive public education campaign to raise awareness of these vanishing historic resources including publication of a preservation booklet, launching a web site, and convening a regional Rosenwald school preservation conference (2004). Two states have conducted comprehensive surveys of Rosenwald schools, while others have surveys underway. Three states have listed Rosenwald Schools on the National Register of Historic Places as multiple property nominations, and Arkansas has individually listed all eligible Rosenwald schools in the state. A network of interested individuals and organizations has been formed to help link activists with resources. To be included in our network, contact the Rosenwald Initiative at soro@nthp.org.

While significant progress has been made in building awareness and assisting local preservation efforts, the rural nature of the Rosenwald schools, lack of documentation of the schools historically, and the labor intensive nature of surveying over 5000 structures across 14 states has rendered survey to be difficult and cost prohibitive. Sampling surveys indicate less than 15 percent of the schools survive. Lack of financial assistance for costly restoration projects on buildings that have been vacant for years, as well as few viable and sustainable adaptive uses for the restored schools also contribute to their endangered status.