By Patricia Staino

• Introduction
• The State of Education in the Early 20th Century
• Preserving the Legacy of Rosenwald Schools
• A Chapter Closes; the Foundation Laid
• North Carolina Rosenwald Schools on the National Register Study List
• North Carolina Rosenwald Schools Listed In The National Register Of Historic Places
• To Help with the Project
• Download the article as a

Preserving the Legacy of Rosenwald Schools

The Office of Historic Preservation is now undertaking a project to identify and log sites where Rosenwald schools stood and still stand.

“Finding these schools isn’t easy,” said Claudia Brown, architectural survey coordinator at the state’s Office of Historic Preservation Survey and Planning Branch. “Properties are listed in records by names without addresses, some place names aren’t in use anymore, some structures are in backwoods that are overgrown.”

Brown’s office didn’t have the funds to launch the search internally, so last year it began to solicit volunteers.
About 40 volunteers across the state are working to find and document the Rosenwald schools in their communities. Recording the details of each school in the public record is the first step in preserving the buildings by raising interest and awareness.