MOUNT VERNON ROSENWALD SCHOOL
The Mt Vernon Rosenwald School Project is a nonprofit working to restore and preserve this historical 1925 African American schoolhouse in Lincoln County, NC and open it again as a community resource for the people of Iron Station.
ABOUT US
COMMUNITY RESOURCE
HISTORIC PRESERVATION
VOLUNTEER
AND BOARD OPPORTUNITIES
Our vision is to open the schoolhouse as a fellowship hall and community resource for the people of Iron Station. Here visitors can learn about the history of the school and African American education in the area. We plan to hold events and educational programs to benefit the Iron Station and greater Lincoln County community.
We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring and preserving the historical 1925 African American schoolhouse in Lincoln County, NC. Our goal is to open it again as a community resource for the people of Iron Station. The schoolhouse is not only a historical landmark, but it also holds significant cultural value for the African American community in the area. We aim to preserve this valuable piece of history for future generations.
We welcome volunteers and board members who are passionate about historic preservation and community outreach. Our nonprofit offers opportunities to work on restoration projects, assist with community events, and help plan future educational programs. Join us in preserving this valuable piece of history!
IN THE NEWS AND UPDATES
Interested in more information about this project?
Scroll below to find stories and updates on the work taking place at the Mount Vernon Rosenwald School.
NEW UNC CHARLOTTE TECH USED TO SEARCH FOR UNMARKED GRAVES AND AN EARLY 20th CENTURY SCHOOL SITE
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November 4, 2023
Iron Station - The Mount Vernon Missionary Baptist Church cemetery is close to being full, though there are areas of rolling grass with no headstones. These sites may hold long departed church members whose burials had wood markers since decayed or temporary markers that have been lost. Church members are hoping to identify these burials and mark each location. Even if a name cannot be attached to a burial it is important that each final resting place be marked and remembered. The UNC Charlotte Anthropology Department is hoping to give them some answers.
On a chilly Saturday morning, UNC Charlotte students and faculty set up their new Ground Penetrating Radar system. GPR looks for disturbances beneath the ground. The team plans to look for unmarked graves in the cemetery and follow up on last year's archeological dig at the Mount Vernon Rosenwald School next door to find the location of the previous school on the property.
The students take turns carefully and methodically walking the radar system across the cemetery grounds. Each time a disturbance is indicated students set an orange flag. By the late afternoon the cemetery is dotted with orange flags. Their work carefully documented, the flags are removed. The data from the GPR will be analyzed and church members will soon know the likely location of unmarked graves. The team will be back soon to finish the work at the cemetery and start on the GPR work on the school grounds.
TIMKEN FOUNDATION GRANT AWARDED TO MOUNT VERNON ROSENWALD SCHOOL
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Photo - Courtesy Timken Corporation
September 25, 2023
Iron Station - The Mount Vernon Rosenwald School received a $75,000 grant from the Timken Foundation today. The presentation of the award was made by local Timken Company plant manager, Dr. Jonathan Waller and Michelle Barnhardt, the plant HR Manager. The nonprofit group is using the funds for substantial subfloor work required at the nearly 100-year-old African American schoolhouse.
SIFTING THROUGH HISTORY
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University of North Carolina Charlotte Magazine
Story and Photos by LYNN ROBERSON
Spring 2023
A North Carolina archaeological dig unearths new knowledge about early 20th century Black Education.
Growing up in Mississippi, Camille Richardson witnessed the
telling and retelling of the tragic story of a family member
who perished when the Ku Klux Klan firebombed his home.
“While saving his family from the fire, he didn’t make it out,”
Richardson said. “My mother first told me the story when I was very young. That’s one thing that has always remained with me.”
While the heartbreaking tale is a significant piece of family
lore, Richardson noticed that such histories went largely untold in predominantly white schools. “We didn’t hear about the horrible things that had happened to people,” Richardson said. “My mom told me, ‘We’re not listened to. We tell our stories, but they are not heard.’”
PRESERVING LINCOLN COUNTY’S ROSENWALD SCHOOL
Now, as a UNC Charlotte master’s student in anthropology, Richardson is listening, while centering a master’s thesis in archaeological and historical research with the Mount Vernon Rosenwald School near Charlotte. Rosenwald Schools were built almost a century ago to educate African American children in rural communities and are regarded as the most important effort to advance Black education in the early 20th century. While 5,000 were built, the National Trust for Historic Preservation estimates only about 500 survive today.
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(Click here for the full article)
Adam Moore is buried in the Mount Vernon Baptist Church Cemetery next door to the school and was likely an early supporter of the school.
THE STORY OF ADAM MILLER MOORE
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The Lincoln County Historian
CAROLE HOWELL
2021 V2 N1
According to pension documents he filed in 1931, Adam Miller Moore was born a slave in 1832 to Jesse Holland, his mother’s owner. The two were sold to Moses Roberts of Cherryville when he was only five.
According to research compiled by local historian Rudolph Young, Moore grew up alongside his master’s son, A. Miller Roberts of Lincoln County, on a farm in Indian Creek. When the Civil War began, young Roberts joined the Confederate Army. Injured from fighting, Roberts spent time in a Richmond hospital and then journeyed home to recuperate. When he was ready to return to his company, Moore recalled that his master sent him to the Confederate army with young Moore, eight years his junior.
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(Click here for the full article)
DEMO DAY UNCOVERS ORIGINAL SCHOOL INTERIOR
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June 22, 2022
Local Lowe's store employees, Mount Vernon Rosenwald School Board members and interns, and friends of the project got to work today removing the 1970s-era drop ceiling and wood paneling to reveal the original school interior. The NC State Historic Preservation Office encouraged the work to peel back the layers to reveal the original material. The 1925 tongue and groove walls and ceilings are now on view and you can see where the chalkboards once hung on the wall. Insulation from the ceiling was saved for reuse. Plans are underway to apply for a grant to restore the classrooms to how they looked when students were taught here in the 1920s.
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The work took the dozen or so volunteers until early afternoon to completely fill up a dumpster. Harris Teeter provided lunch for the volunteers. Another workday is planned to build a shed on-site to hold school furniture and supplies while the renovation takes place.
SECOND COUNTY ROSENWALD SCHOOL ON TAP FOR PRESERVATION EFFORTS
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Lincoln Times-News
PHIL PERRY Senior Writer
Sept 16, 2016
A Rosenwald school in Iron Station will be the focus of preservation efforts as funding for the project takes focus in the coming months.
Mount Vernon School, along with Oaklawn School in Lincolnton, represents what was once a collection of more than 5,300 Rosenwald schools that served as education hubs for African American children in the 20th century.
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(Click here for the full article)
DIGGING FOR HISTORY: GRADUATE STUDENTS CONDUCT ARCHEOLOGICAL DIG AT MOUNT VERNON ROSENWALD SCHOOL
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Lincoln Times-News
MICHELLE T. BERNARD Senior Staff Writer
Nov 25, 2022 ​​
IRON STATION – Nearly 800 Rosenwald Schools were built in North Carolina – more than in any other state. Only two of the original six Rosenwald Schools are still standing in Lincoln County. One is Oaklawn, which was rehabilitated utilizing a Community Development Block Grant and is now being used by Communities in Schools of Lincoln County and the Mount Vernon School in Iron Station.
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(Click here for the full article)
OUR HISTORY
1925 Mount Vernon Rosenwald School Register
Rosenwald Schools were built in the early 20th century for African American children in the rural South during the Jim Crow era. Though nearly five thousand of these schools were built in fifteen states, only about ten percent still exist today. Many were closed and abandoned after desegregation, demolished during urban renewal, or renovated and now unrecognizable as Rosenwald Schools. In the past few decades interest has grown in these historic buildings and the important stories they have to tell. Stories about unlikely partnerships, philanthropy, separate but not equal, and communities coming together for education.
The Mount Vernon School is one such site. It was built in 1925 in Iron Station, North Carolina. Like others, it has suffered from deferred maintenance and alterations. In the 1970s the original 9x9 bank of Rosenwald windows on the front and back of the school were removed. Vinyl siding, a drop ceiling, wood paneling, and vinyl floors were all added. The good news is the original material is still there, it had
just been hidden. Today the school’s restoration and preservation are championed by former students and volunteers. A non- profit was created in 2015 to save the school, bring it back to its 1920s appearance, and share its history.
THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS!
CONTACT US
Help us preserve this important historical African-American Schoolhouse
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Want to get involved? Reach out! We would love to hear from you.
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