At my request, the State Historic Preservation Office of North Carolina, Division of Historical Resources, forwarded a copy of its file on Yelverton School. It’s a slim folder containing four pages: a Historic Property Survey Summary; N.C. Rosenwald School Search Form; and two print-outs from the Fisk University Rosenwald Fund Card File Database.
Yelverton School was built circa 1925 as a frame, side-gabled, two-teacher-type Rosenwald school. A front-gabled projecting wing was flanked by two recessed entries, and its windows were nine-over-nine and six-over-six sash.
The Fisk database print-outs contain two breath-taking photographs of Yelverton School, seemingly taken around the time the school was built. The first was taken straight-on, young pines standing in the background. The second shows the rear elevation.
An unidentified man approaches the school through what appears to be broomsedge.
Fisk’s Rosenwald database is undergoing digitalization; I look forward to closer examination of these images when available online.
One of only three official Rosenwald Schools still more-or-less standing in Wilson County, it was recently demolished.
I understand the building was in bad shape, but wish its owner had reached out beforehand to discuss features from its historic interior that might have been salvaged.
Wilson Colored High School (later Darden High School) observed a day honoring Julius Rosenwald, whose charitable foundation funded the school’s construction.
Alma Lucas — in the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 208 Jones Street, South Carolina-born drayman Henry Lucas, 35; wife Mamie, 35; and children James, 16, Leroy, 14, Milton, 12, Lucille, 10, Alma, 5, Margret, 6, and Charles, 2.
Alcestia Langley — in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: grocery store merchant Jarrette J. Langley, 51; wife Mary, 49; and children Mary, 21, Esmond, 18, grocery store delivery boy, Ruttena, 16, Alcesta, 14, and Eunice, 8.
Mabel Williams –probably, in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: James Williams, 55; wife Mary C., 58; and children William, 25, Mable, 16, Sarah J., 17, and James Jr., 18.
County Extension Agent Carter W. Foster published a reminder of the annual county-wide picnic for farm families, held in 1941 at Yelverton School in far southeastern Wilson County.
The nineteenth in a series of posts highlighting the schools that educated African-American children outside the town of Wilson in the first half of the twentieth century. The posts will be updated; additional information, including photographs, is welcome.
In 1926, state assistant agent for Negro schools William F. Credle prepared a report on Wilson County’s Rosenwald schools. It included this notation: “Stantonsburg: This is a three-teacher building building similar to the Saratoga [school] building. However, the building and grounds were in better condition. As in the other schools the chimneys should be provided with terra cotta thimbles and the equipment should be reconditioned and more seats should be provided. This building is provided with a stage which should be removed as it takes up a large part of classroom space in one of the classrooms and its location makes it necessary for the seats to face in the wrong direction. If a stage is permitted in any small building, it should be a removable affair to be used only for public exercises and at commencement time. The sanitary privies at this school were provided with pits and were in very good condition. There is evidence that the teachers at this school took a pride in their work and in the buildings.”
Location: A 1936 state road map of Wilson County shows Stantonsburg School on present-day N.C. Highway 58, just northeast of Stantonsburg. It appears that it is placed outside its actual location because the map is rather cluttered in the town proper. Stantonsburg Colored School stood on North Whitley Street, on the far east side of Stantonsburg.
The former site of Stantonsburg School in the block bounded by North Whitley Street and West Macon Avenue, Stantonsburg.
Per sale advertised for several weeks in the Wilson Daily Times in the fall of 1951: “STANTONSBURG COLORED SCHOOL in Stantonsburg Township, containing 2 acres more or less, and more particularly described as follows: BEGINNING on Whitley Street at a stake, thence South 62 [degrees] West 280 feet to a stake, thence North 28 [degrees] West 295 feet to a ditch, thence with the center of the ditch North 55 [degrees] 29′ East 281.7 feet to a stake, thence South 28 [degrees] East 327 feet to the beginning. Being the identical land described in a judgment recorded in Book 146, at page 343, in the office of the Register of Deeds of Wilson County.”
Known faculty: principal Arnold G. Walker.
Stantonsburg School as seen in a 1940 aerial photograph.
Wilson is not “a town about twelve miles from” Raleigh (it’s 46 miles), and there were two schools for African-American children in Wilson County called Barnes. One, Rosenwald-built, was on today’s Airport Road. The other was apparently adjacent to Barnes Church, just north of Stantonsburg on modern Old Stantonsburg Road. Both have been demolished. This post almost certainly refers to the Airport Road school.
The eighteenth in a series of posts highlighting the schools that educated African-American children outside the town of Wilson in the first half of the twentieth century. The posts will be updated; additional information, including photographs, is welcome.
Location: A 1936 state road map of Wilson County shows Yelverton School on present-day Aspen Grove Church Road near the Pitt County line.
Per notification of public sale in 1951: “YELVERTON COLORED SCHOOL in Saratoga Township, containing two acres, more or less, and more particularly described as follows: BEGINNING at a stake on the East side of Aspin Grove Road beside a white oak, runs thence South 55 1/2 [degrees] East 204 feet to a stake with a sourwood and 2 pine pointers, corners, runs thence 34 1/6 [degrees] West 420 feet to a stake, corners, runs thence North 55 1/2 [degrees] to a stake on the easterly side of said road, thence with said road to the beginning. Being the identical land described in a judgment recorded in Book 179, at page 155, in the Office of the Register of Deeds of Wilson County.”
Yelverton School was built in 1925-26 with $700.00 from the Rosenwald Fund, $2025.00 from Wilson County, and $50.00 from local families.
“This is good two-teacher school with cloak rooms and industrial room. It is properly located on a good site. I recommend that the following improvements be made:
“Put in at least 30 feet of blackboard to the room. This should be provided with a chalk rail.
“Put in terra cotta thimbles in all chimneys.
“Provide good stoves. Jacketed stoves are to be desired. We furnish blue prints for jackets and they can be made for about $20.00 a piece at an good tinner’s.
“Hooks for cloaks and shelves for lunch boxes should be provided in the cloak rooms.
“The seats now in the building should be reconditioned and a sufficient number of new ones provided to accommodate the enrollment. The old seats that are badly cut can be put in very good condition by planing off the rough tops and staining and varnishing.
“Finally the privies should be removed to the line of the school property. They should be provided with pits and the houses should be made fly proof.
“The patrons should be encouraged to clean off the lot so as to provide play ground for the children.”
The condition of Yelverton School has declined considerably in the 13 years since Plate 256, above, was published in the research report.
A bank of nine-over-nine windows.
One of the two classrooms. Note the stove and original five-panel door.
The rear of the school.
Known faculty: teachers Otto E. Sanders, Esther B. Logan, Merle S. Turner, Izetta Green, Louise Delorme, Dorothy Eleen Jones.
Plate 256 published in the Research Report; other photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, September 2020.
The North Carolina State Archives holds records of the former Department of Public Instruction’s Division of Negro Education, including correspondence between the Rosenwald Fund and county school superintendents.
In March 1926, Rosenwald Fund Supervisor W.F. Credle wrote Wilson County School Superintendent Charles L. Coon to update Coon on his visit to Elm City and to tout several sources of funding “for the colored children of North Carolina.” “We are very anxious to add on schools in towns the size of Elm City where buildings large enough for the accommodation of a high school can be provided.”
Though initially cool to the idea of external control of funds, Coon responded quickly, inviting Credle to meet with the Board of Education to discuss “the whole problem of colored school buildings for Wilson county.”
On April 26, Credle sent Coon a report on the schools he had inspected during his visit and urged him to consider employing a Jeanes teacher, who “could assist the people in raising as much money by private contributions for school buildings and equipment as the county would have to spend for her salary.” (The Jeanes Foundation funded educational and vocational training in rural African-American communities, primarily via teacher placement.)
On May 31, Credle wrote again, “happy to advise” that checks for Stantonsburg ($900), Evansdale ($700) and Saratoga Schools ($900) were attached, and Yelverton and New Vester were coming.
The fourteenth in a series of posts highlighting the schools that educated African-American children outside the town of Wilson in the first half of the twentieth century. The posts will be updated; additional information, including photographs, is welcome.
Location: Per a sale advertised in the Wilson Daily Times for several weeks in the fall of 1951, “SARATOGA COLORED SCHOOL in Saratoga township, containing two acres, more or less, and more particularly described as follows: BEGINNING at a stake in the Saratoga-Stantonsburg Road, thence Northwest 140 yards to a stake, thence Southwest 70 yards parallel with said road thence Southeast 140 yards and parallel with the first line in the said Saratoga-Stantonsburg Road, thence with the said road 70 yards to the beginning. Being the identical land described in a deed recorded in Book 157, at page 70, Wilson County Registry.”
The thirteenth in a series of posts highlighting the schools that educated African-American children outside the town of Wilson in the first half of the twentieth century. The posts will be updated; additional information, including photographs, is welcome.
Location: A 1925 soil map of Wilson County appears to show a school next to Saint Delight Free Will Baptist Church on a tiny lane that runs parallel to the railroad.
However, 1936 state road map of Wilson County shows a school on what appears to be present-day Newsome Mill Road, near the community of Boyette, which was a name by which the Kirby’s Crossing community was once known.
Description: Per The Public Schools of Wilson County, North Carolina: Ten Years 1913-14 to 1923-24, Kirbys School was a three-room school seated on one acre. This photo appears in the report, but may depict an earlier school in the vicinity, also called Kirby’s, that served white children.
In 1936, African-American children at Rocky Branch, Williamson, Kirby’s, New Vester and Calvin Levelschools — all in the rural southwest quadrant of Wilson County — responded to a survey about education and farm life.
