Architectural Elements …
The Rosenwald Fund provided architectural plans for schoolhouses to communities. These plans were carefully designed to produce a healthy learning environment and the school buildings had to meet the mandatory construction standards established by the Fund. This included adequate light, ventilation, separate outhouses, coatrooms, and quality blackboards and desks. This attention to detail significantly increased the quality of African-American schoolhouses during segregation when white school boards often siphoned off public monies, leaving little or nothing for black schools. Because all the schools were constructed from the same sets of plans, they all have a similar appearance making them easy to recognize today once you know what you are looking for.
Introduction
The Rosenwald Schools of Virginia
The Rosenwald Schools were financed jointly by the Julius Rosenwald Fund and local communities between 1917 and 1932. The Fund, established in 1917 by Julius Rosenwald, the president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, was inspired in large part by Rosenwald’s friendship with Booker T. Washington. Washington believed in the power of education and had a vision of generations of African Americans raising themselves up through the opportunities provided by small, rural schools. When the two men met in 1911, Washington’s vision found a sponsor and the Julius Rosenwald Fund was born. Rosenwald was approached by Washington to use funds donated to the Tuskegee Institute to construct six schools in Alabama. Impressed with the results, Rosenwald set up the Julius Rosenwald Fund to build schools for African American children across the South. During the 15 years of the fund’s existence, the Rosenwald fund helped finance 4,977 new schools, 217 teachers’ homes, and 163 shop buildings. In some communities these schools were the first formal school house, in others they replaced dilapidated and unsafe structures. In each case, this program encouraged communities to contribute to the construction of their school and be involved from the ground, up.
This website focuses on the 382 Rosenwald Schools and support buildings built here in Virginia. These schools are found in every region of Virginia (except the four counties in the Appalachian region in the far southwest). They range from small, one-teacher schools, to larger industrial education schools found in cities.