Abandoned school in Kentucky

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The old Jeffersontown Colored School (first known as School #2A) was built in 1929-30 as an elementary school for African American children in grades one through eight who lived in Jeffersontown and the surrounding area. It replaced a frame residence that was on the site when it was purchased by the Board of Education of Jefferson County in 1912 and which had housed the elementary school since that time. The architect of the new building was Oscar W. Holmes, a former teacher at DuPont Manual Training School and a draftsman/architect for the Board of Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Holmes, along with local architects Arthur G. Tafel and Edgar Archer, submitted proposals in April 1929 to the Board of Education for "architectural work" to be carried out in the 1929-30 school year. Holmes was employed to furnish plans for the Jeffersontown Colored School and a gymnasium at Okolona. The low bid of $14,540 by Moore Bros., contractors, was accepted.

When the new school opened in 1930, there were 13 county elementary schools for African American children, most small frame buildings dating from the early 1900s. The Jeffersontown school accommodated an average of 120 pupils per year with three teachers. Following the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, integration was gradually implemented in the Jefferson County schools and by 1963 all of the existing elementary schools for African American children had been closed. The Jeffersontown Colored School closed in 1961.

Although a result of the "separate but equal" policy of the school system which for nearly a half-century prevailed until 1954 (and which was often less than equal), the construction of the new school in 1929-30 upgraded an educational facility for African American children by replacing a substandard frame house with a modern brick structure. Moreover, as far as can be determined, the Jeffersontown Colored School building is the only elementary school structure built for African American students which is still standing in Jefferson County, outside the city of Louisville.

Building Description

One-story brick structure with a ground floor or partial basement and a flat roof with a parapet wall on three sides. The entrances are recessed in vestibules which have round arches of brick with limestone voussoirs. Windows are large industrial-type openings that have been boarded on the main floor and filled with concrete block at the basement level. Some original windows remain beneath the boarding. Buttress-like brick pilasters with limestone trim provide decorative elements on the front facade.

(1984)

(1984)

(1984)