Local

Historians call loss of historic black school to fire ‘devastating'

By Ken Lemon, wsoctv.com
By Ken Lemon, wsoctv.com

CHERRYVILLE, N.C. — Flames destroyed a home this week in Cherryville, but Channel 9 learned it was more than a home. It was a school dating back to the Reconstruction era and was the only source of education for many black children in Gaston County.

“Unbelievable, unbelievable. Devastating. Worst thing I have ever seen in my life,” said Eula Williams, who was a former student at Beaver Dam School.

[PHOTOS: Cherryville home goes up in flames]

Williams, 87, watched the flames shoot out of the building on Carson Hunter Road and watched the building that used to be a two-classroom schoolhouse burn to the ground.

“It seemed like, part of us was gone,” Williams said. “I started going to school when I was 6 years old.”

(Click PLAY for video of the flames and damage from Chopper 9)

A ledger from 1868 mentions a crumbling school in the same area. That school was revived when the president of Sears department stores, Julius Rosenwald, donated matching funds to build 5,300 schools in black communities across the country. Twelve of those schools were in Gaston County.

People in the community raised $200 in 1927, a significant sum back then, to get a school built for $3,400.

“The school wasn’t going to be provided without this,” said Jason Luker, assistant director of the Gaston Museum of History. “They built that school for opportunities. They built it to better their lives.”

Luker said a rich piece of history is gone forever.

“It’s tragic. It’s lost, another piece lost,” Luker said.

There are three more Rosenwald schools in Gaston County. Museum operators plan to launch a program to make sure they are preserved.

Read more top trending stories on wsoctv.com:

Cox Media Group

Most Read