Durham's Chapel Rosenwald School

The $3,750 cost of the school shows who carried the load. The Rosenwald Fund gave $700, and the rest was split evenly between the state school fund and the Black community itself. The design was a standard two-teacher plan with a central industrial room used to teach home economics, and movable partitions between the classrooms could be opened for school programs and community events. Earlier schools here included a one-room building lost to fire and a frame schoolhouse called the Little Red School House. The church beside it was founded in 1866.

What the plaque says

Durham's Chapel Rosenwald School 1923-1962 Built in 1923 for African Americans during the era of racial segregation, the two-room Durham's Chapel Rosenwald School was used until 1962. It was constructed with funds from the African American community, the county, and the Rosenwald Fund, which supported the education of African American children in the rural South. Keeping with Rosenwald's stated emphasis of "service to the community," Durham's Chapel Rosenwald School became a gathering place for African Americans in the Bethpage area. Ownership of the building transferred to Durham's Chapel Community Club in November 1962, and it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 8, 2006.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wynnewood State Historic Site — 5.4 mi
  A National Historic Landmark log inn at the Bledsoe's Lick springs, beside a Mississippian mound center and tied to the domestic slave trade.
• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 24 mi
  Andrew Jackson's cotton plantation east of Nashville, where visitors can walk to the quarters, Alfred's Cabin and the Enslaved Cemetery as well as the mansion.
• Ryman Auditorium — 33 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.
• Tennessee State Capitol — 33 mi
  William Strickland's Greek Revival capitol on Nashville's Capitol Hill, finished in 1859 and built from the bottom up with the labor of enslaved men.

More markers nearby

• Jonathan Browning — 1.6 mi
• Hugh Rogan — 1.6 mi
• Cragfont — 5.1 mi
• Bledsoe's Fort and Monument — 5.2 mi