Photograph by Paul M. Gettys, courtesy South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office
South Carolina, Reference number: 13000465
Area of Significance: Education, Ethnic Heritage: Black, Architecture
Period of significance: 1924-1956
The Catawba School was built in 1924-25 as a Rosenwald School as a two-teacher rural school to serve the African American community in southeastern York County. It was one of twenty schools built in York County with funds from the Rosenwald program between 1917 and 1932. Of these schools, only two, the Catawba Rosenwald School and the Carroll Rosenwald School, are known to be extant.
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Photograph by Carroll Van West and Savanna Grandey, courtesy of Alabama State Historic Preservation Office
Alabama, Reference number: 100005781
Areas of Significance at the national, state, and local level: Education, Ethnic Heritage: Black, Social History, and Architecture
Period of significance: 1935-1974
The high school’s history and its evolution illustrate the profound changes taking place in public education in the American South, particularly in the process of integration. The school is significant for the role it played in the nationally significant landmark Civil Rights case Lee v. Macon County Board of Education. The ruling in this case set a precedent for the enhanced role of the federal government in the desegregation of local schools. The property is also significant at the local level for its unusual Spanish Colonial Revival and International Style architecture in a rural Alabama public school building. The county built the 1965 International Style buildings after segregationists bombed the school during its initial integration in 1964.
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Photograph by Peter Michaud, courtesy New Hampshire State Historic Preservation Office
New Hampshire, Reference number: 15000670
Areas of Significance: Architecture, Education, Politics/Government
Period of Significance: 1925-1974
Rollinsford Grade School’s Colonial Revival design was the prototype by the architectural firm Huddleston & Hersey for at least 14 other schools in New Hampshire and Maine. This school was constructed in 1936 with Public Works Administration funding to consolidate the town’s two surviving one-room schoolhouses and a four-room village school. Rollinsford Grade School continues to serve as the town's only active school building.
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Photograph courtesy of Missouri State Historic Preservation Office
Missouri, Reference number: 100006918
Area of Significance: Architecture
Period of significance: 1912-1922
This nomination provides a good example of a school nominated only for its architectural significance. Unlike many school nominations, this one does not attempt to craft an argument for educational significance simply based on the fact that the building is a school. The nomination is supported by Multiple Property Documentation Form "Historic Resources of the Kansas City, Missouri, School District."
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Last updated: January 19, 2026