Abandoned school in Kentucky
Douglass School, Lexington Kentucky
The Douglass School, part of the state's "separate but equal" educational policy, was built in 1947. At the time of its completion, there were only 62 public High Schools for black students in the state and only 13 of these were, like the Douglass School, county facilities.
Following the Civil War, Kentucky faced the challenge of providing public schools for thousands of freedmen. African Americans held statewide conventions in Lexington (1867) and Louisville (1869) to petition for public schools. Rather than admit blacks to existing schools, the General Assembly created a separate system of common schools for blacks in 1874. In 1891 the revised Kentucky constitution legalized segregated public education. According to all reports, black schools were even more inadequate than those for whites.
The eight-room building on Price Road, near the city limits, served 12 grades. A 1935 Bureau of School Service report, A School Building Program for Lexington and Fayette County, concluded that the single most important problem discovered during the study was the overcrowding conditions at the Douglass School. From its construction in 1929 until 1934, the enrollment increased from 208 to 335, and in spite of additions, the report concluded, "the program is yet hampered by restricted building facilities." In anticipation of the time when a new black high school might be needed, the county Board of Education had purchased a school building site bordering Georgetown Pike just beyond the city limits a few years prior to the completion of the 1935 study. According to the report, this site was available for use if a new black high school were to be constructed. An architect was hired and architectural plans for a new Douglass School were completed by January 1941. The construction of the school was delayed, however, by World War II. Meantime, the crowded conditions were eased by transferring the Junior and Senior classes to Dunbar High School in Lexington.
In 1947, a new Douglass School was constructed for junior and senior high students at another location on Price Road and the original Rosenwald building was moved to the same property to serve elementary students. Though the extant Douglass School did not benefit directly from the Rosenwald Fund, it physically embodies Rosenwald's intent to gradually reduce his contributions and increase public support, with the hope that eventually the entire process of funding black education would be undertaken using public dollars.
The two-story brick multi-use school built in 1947 was designed by John T. Gillig. Born in Indiana in 1883, Gillig graduated from the College of Architecture at Ohio State University in 1909. After working with a New York City firm for one year, Gillig was hired by the federal government in Washington, D.C. His duties included designing courthouses and post offices throughout the country. It was one of these assignments that brought him to Kentucky in the 1920s where he met his wife Elizabeth Poindexter of Cynthiana. The couple moved to Lexington in the 1920s where they remained until they moved to Bourbon County upon his retirement in 1971. Gillig died in Paris in 1978 at the age of 95. In addition to the Douglass School, Gillig designed numerous buildings throughout Lexington, including, the combined post office and federal building at Barr and Limestone Streets, the University of Kentucky's Memorial Coliseum, Shriners Children's Hospital, and at Transylvania University, the Mitchell Fine Arts Center, and the Forrer Hall girls' dormitory.
The Rosenwald building burned in 1955, and after 1963, Douglass School was used as an elementary and junior high school only. High School students went to Dunbar in Lexington. The Douglass School was finally closed by desegregation in 1971.
Building Description
The Douglass School is a two-story brick structure with limestone foundation and multilevel hip roof located in the heart of Lexington's West End, a traditional African American neighborhood. To the east, a broad yard with large trees separate the school from Price Road. The school's immediate neighbors include the First African Baptist Church, a contemporary school, and private housing. Constructed in 1947, to educate Fayette County's African American students, the Douglass School physically embodies Kentucky's "separate but equal" educational policy.
The main entrance is accentuated by a projecting unit with hipped roof and large double doors capped by the original sign, "Douglass School." The structure consists of four primary units--the auditorium; the classroom wing; the agricultural and library unit; and the cafeteria, and home economics unit. Each unit is generously illuminated by numerous, large, multi-paned windows. When architect John T. Gillig originally designed the school in 1941, he planned to construct the building in stone but by the time the structure was actually built in 1947, the plans had been changed and brick was used instead. This appears to be the only change to Gillig's original plans.
When the Douglass School was constructed in 1947, large consolidated schools were becoming multi-use complexes, with gymnasiums, auditoriums, and other spaces that made them important community facilities. Schools were viewed as community resources and architects were instructed to design them with this multi-use function in mind. This philosophy is physically embodied in Gillig's design. The central focus of the Douglass School is the large auditorium/gymnasium. The front doors empty onto the corridor located immediately in front of the multi-use public space. The doors are flanked by trophy cases which prominently exhibit the school's pride to all visitors. In addition, separate entrances located to each side of the stage and dressing rooms, allow public access to the auditorium/gymnasium without direct entrance to the rest of the school.
The main instructional unit of the school is sited at an angle to the auditorium, further delineating their special functions. On the two levels, the instructional unit consists of eight general classrooms, an agricultural classroom, shop, library, separate restrooms for girls, boys, and teachers, and the principal's office. The office is strategically located at the apex of the instructional unit and auditorium which, like the auditorium, allows public access without allowing direct entrance to the rest of the school. Finally, the two-story cafeteria/ home economics unit is located in a wing opposite the instructional unit.
The interior finish is very simple. Except for the wooden stage, the floors are concrete throughout the entire school. There are no baseboards and the only wainscot is located in the corridor. The corridor walls are plastered above the double brick wainscot. The remaining walls are concrete blocks.
