What school is this?

The 1908 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson shows a two-story wooden structure with an exterior staircase on East Hines Street near South Spring labeled “School (Negro).” (South Spring Street is now Douglas Street. Thus, this building would have been facing south on Hines in the block leading up to Lodge Street.) It’s not the Episcopal parochial school, which was a one-story building next to the church at South and Lodge Streets, and I am not aware of any other private schools for African-Americans operating in Wilson at the time.

This is the sole listing in the 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, which is for the Colored Graded School:

By 1913, an extra story had been added to the building, and the exterior stairs removed. It was then labeled “Lodge Hall (Negro).”

Sanborn fire insurance map, Wilson, N.C., 1913.

Approximate location today on Hines just east of South Douglas. Aerial view courtesy of Google Maps.