Old Rosenwald School in Alabama

Oak Grove School, Prairieville Alabama

Date added: July 27, 2023 Categories: Alabama School

According to records in the Rosenwald School Building Fund papers in Fisk University, Nashville, the Oak Grove School was built in 1925 for $3,000. Of that sum, African Americans raised $1,400 while the State of Alabama contributed $900 and the Julius Rosenwald Fund contributed $700. Like so many Rosenwald schools, the Oak Grove School was built near a religious building, the Oak Grove Missionary Baptist Church. Oak Grove continued to be used as an elementary school until the 1960s when consolidation merged the classes with the nearby Sunshine School. Today, the Oak Grove Missionary Baptist Church beautifully maintains the building and utilizes it as a church/community center and Sunday School.

The Oak Grove School was constructed under the Julius Rosenwald School Building Fund program. From 1913 to 1937, the Julius Rosenwald School Building Fund helped finance over 5,358 school buildings, teacher's homes, and industrial buildings for African American education in fifteen Southern states. The Rosenwald School Building Fund represents a benchmark in the history of black education, representing the most important philanthropic force that came to the aid of African Americans during the first half of the twentieth century. As a result of the Rosenwald Fund's initiatives, more black children went to school longer and with better-trained teachers in better-constructed and equipped schools. The school-building effort awakened the public school authorities and the general public to the need for more adequate educational provisions for African Americans. Remaining Rosenwald Schools, such as the Emory School, are the last remaining vestiges of one of the most important school building projects ever undertaken in the United States. They also reflect African Americans' pursuit of education and their struggle for educational opportunities in the segregated South.

As a Rosenwald-funded school, the Oak Grove School was constructed according to designs and specifications supplied by Samuel Smith, Director of the Rosenwald School Building Fund. Built according to Designs 20 & 20A - Two Teacher Schools as found in Smith's Community School Plans, the Oak Grove School building reflects the architectural plans and specifications provided by the Rosenwald Fund to ensure the construction of a quality facility. The Julius Rosenwald School Building Fund was one of the most important and ambitious school building projects ever undertaken. Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald were determined to provide up-to-date educational facilities for African Americans. As such, these school buildings incorporated industrial rooms, libraries, cloakrooms, heating stoves, and folding doors between rooms so that facilities could be used as community centers. Plans dictated east/west orientation for maximization of natural light, window shades, sanitary privies, and interior paint schemes. So revolutionary were these mass-produced, standardized designs, that education officials soon began building white schools according to these plans as well. By 1928, one in five rural schools for blacks was a Rosenwald School. By the 1930s, these modern buildings had replaced thousands of old shanty schoolhouses. These school buildings set the standard not only in regard to schoolhouse architecture but they influenced the construction, architecture, and maintenance of other structures in rural and nearby areas.

Building Description

The Oak Grove School, c. 1925, is a "two teacher" Rosenwald school building constructed according to Designs No. 20 & 20-A, Two Teacher Community Schools, as found in Samuel Smith's Community School Plans, published in booklet form in 1924 by the Rosenwald Southern Office in Nashville. Smith became director of the Southern Office in 1920 and had supplied plans for Rosenwald Schools since that time.

The one-story frame building rests on a foundation of brick piers. The exterior wall material is simple weatherboarding. The cross-gable roof is covered in corrugated metal and features two interior brick chimneys. The Oak Grove school exhibits a small amount of Craftsman-style detailing, such as the brackets found along the eaves of the gables and the exposed rafters. As one would expect from a Rosenwald school, the building has an east-west orientation, the facade faces east.

Basically, the Oak Grove School is T-shaped, with a rectangular block of classrooms and a projecting gable wing containing an industrial room. The centrally placed projecting gable wing is centered along a five-bay facade and contains a band of four 9 over 9 double-hung sash windows. This wing was added onto in the mid-1950s, creating a larger industrial room. To the right of the gable wing is a secondary entrance, a single-leaf door. The primary single-leaf entrance, which is protected by a shed roof overhang with Craftsman brackets, is on the left (southern) side of the projecting wing. The south elevation features paired 9 over 9 double-hung sash windows in the gable end. Along the west elevation are two bands of five 9 over 9 double-hung sash windows and at the extreme northwest corner, a single-leaf entrance. The northern facade is plain, with no window or door openings.

The interior room arrangement adheres to the plan found in 20-A, with two large 22' x 30' classrooms separated by folding doors. A 10'x 20' industrial room is located midway along the eastern elevation with doors opening into both classrooms. A cloakroom (4' x 32') is located along the southern wall of the building. The interior walls and ceiling are covered with beaded board. The school retains some interior furnishings such as chalkboards and some desks.