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Highland
Park Rosenwald School
Prince George's County, Maryland
The Highland Park School is one of the success stories in the
recognition and preservation of Rosenwald schools in Prince
George's County, Maryland. The original school, built in 1928,
is now part of larger school complex, but it has considerable
significance in the history of black education in the County.
The original Highland Park School is a large brick, hip-roof
building; an arched entrance is centered in the main east facade,
in a projecting frontispiece surmounted by a shaped parapet.
Built into a hillside, the building stands on a high foundation
which encloses a full story below grade. It is distinguished
by its arched entryway surmounted by a keystone and decorative
plaques, its decorative brick stringcourse, and the use of stone
for windowsills and the cap of the shaped parapet. This original
structure now constitutes the northernmost section of a larger
building complex formed by successive additions.
Highland
Park School was a focal point in the streetcar suburb of Highland
Park. Development of the Highland Park community
had begun early in the twentieth century, the earliest recorded
plat dating from 1913. Highland Park developed along the right-of-way
of the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis (WB&A) Railroad,
an interurban line (established 1908) that provided incentive
for the establishment of many small communities of commuters.
Highland Park was one of several African-American communities
that grew up along the WB&A during the 1920s, with most residents
being vegetable farmers and laborers on the local produce farms,
as well as skilled tradesmen and government workers who commuted
into the Federal City. Until 1928, African-American students
from this area who aspired to secondary education took the WB&A
train into the District of Columbia to attend the Washington
high schools for black students.
Prince George's County's first black high school was established
in the County Seat (Upper Marlboro) in 1921, and served the southern
part of the County. After considerable efforts by citizens in
support of the establishment of additional high schools for blacks,
the Board of Education approved plans to build two more high
schools, partially supported by the Rosenwald Fund. Two nearly
identical high schools, at Lakeland and Highland Park, were completed
and opened in 1928. The High School at Lakeland was to serve
students from the northwestern portion of the County, and the
Highland Park School was to serve students from the north-central
area. Designs for the two schools (handsome and substantial brick
schoolhouses with six classrooms, library, office, bathrooms
and utility rooms) were prepared by the architectural firm of
Linthicum and Linthicum of Raleigh, North Carolina; many residents
of Highland Park worked on the actual construction of their school.
The six-classroom Highland Park School opened in the fall of
1928, with seven teachers, serving all grades from first through
twelfth. In the early years, two teachers taught the elementary
grades. After finishing the seventh grade, students moved down
the hall to take high school classes: math, science, English,
history, music and home economics - a different teacher for
each subject. High school students were bused to Highland Park
from all of the north-central part of Prince George's County.
Three citizens from the Highland Park community were named
trustees of the school, responsible for monitoring maintenance
of the building and reporting any issues to the Board of Education.
One of the original trustees was E. D. Martin, a local stonemason
who had been very active in promoting the location of Highland
Park for a black high school. His son, Clement Martin, later
spoke eloquently of entering the brand new school as a first-grader
when it opened in 1928. Clem Martin went on to teach in the
school, and to send all of his children to the school. After
retirement, Martin spent every day watching out for the school,
and making sure that all visitors learned of its importance.
Over the years, Highland Park School has served all levels of
instruction, high school, junior high school and elementary school.
Additions were constructed in 1949, 1958 and 1965, resulting
in a long wing attached to the south end of the original (1928)
six-room school. But the school was closed in 1973 when Prince
George's County implemented a court-order busing system to better
integrate the County's schools. Children from the Highland Park
community no longer attended their neighborhood school, but were
bused to sometimes faraway schools, to the displeasure of their
parents and grandparents who had attended Highland Park. For
the next 20 years Highland Park School was used as offices and
a staff development center.
As all parts of the multi-section Highland Park School building
began to show signs of age, the community, led by Clem Martin
and other loyal graduates, began to express their fear that the
Board of Education was making plans to demolish it; they became
very vocal about their determination to preserve it, and, if
possible, re-establish it as a neighborhood school. In 1991,
the local civic association requested a study of the building,
its condition and its historical significance. With energetic
assistance from the local citizens, the study was completed by
staff of the planning agency that implements the County's Historic
Preservation Ordinance. The study recommended designation of
the Highland Park School as an Historic Site, to be protected
by the Preservation Ordinance. In 1992 the County's Historic
Preservation Commission reviewed the recommendation, and the
designation was effected, on the basis of three criteria: the
school's value as part of the cultural and educational characteristics
of the County, its embodiment of distinctive characteristics
of the Colonial Revival style of architecture, and its importance
as a prominent visual feature of its community. Although the
Board of Education was at first concerned about the limitations
that Historic Site designation would place on any plans for the
building, it was soon won over by the enthusiasm of the local
citizens, and their pride in the recognition of what they had
long considered the focal point of their community.
Then in 1994, the Board of Education began a total renovation
of the original 1928 school structure for the establishment
of a Head Start preschool for the Highland Park community.
Plans involved replacement of the roof and rebuilding of much
of the interior structure, and the work was reviewed and approved
by the County's Historic Preservation Commission. One of the
happy circumstances of the project was the discovery and use
of the original 1928 plans by Linthicum and Linthicum. The
Highland Park Head Start Center opened in 1995.
Within
a few years, renovation work was also undertaken on the newer,
multi-section south wing of Highland Park School, resulting
in the opening in the fall of 1999 of the new state-of-the-art
Highland Park Elementary School. The opening of the new elementary
school was an event of extraordinary celebration, with the reunion
of many graduates of the original Rosenwald High School during
the 1930s and 1940s. At the opening celebration, Clem Martin
was recognized for his steadfast devotion and support for the
school, without which the renovations and reopening could not
have happened. As he said on the occasion, AI did it because
my father fought so hard to get the school here so many years
ago - I hope it'll last forever! Interviews with some of the
early high school graduates revealed many stories about their
teachers and classes, discipline, sports and study, and produced
many tears and hearty laughs. And within just a few years, another
celebration/reunion would provide additional recognition for
Highland Park and the Rosenwald school program.
During the 1990s, and especially during the celebration of the
Tricentennial of Prince George's County (established 1696), a
new awareness of Rosenwald schools began to grow. The African-American
Heritage Survey was published as part of the Tricentennial observance
in 1996, informing an interested audience that 23 Rosenwald schools
had been built in the County in the 1920s, and that only nine
of them were still standing. The interest in Rosenwald schools
increased in the next few years, with the County presenting a
panel on the subject at the 1999 national conference in Baltimore
of the American Association of State and Local History. Later
in the same year, the County historian led two full days of tours
of African-American historic buildings (including Rosenwald schools)
as part of the annual conference of the National Trust for Historic
Preservation in Washington, D.C. In 2001, a presentation on the
Rosenwald schools of Prince George's County was made at the annual
national conference (also in Washington) of the Afro-American
Historical and Genealogical Society. More and more people and
organizations were becoming aware of the history and significance
of the Rosenwald school program.
At about this time, the Prince George's County Historical and
Cultural Trust (one of Prince George's County's non-profit
preservation organizations) adopted as its special project
the recognition and preservation of the County's remaining
Rosenwald schools. Part of the project was to be the erection
of bronze markers on the grounds of the nine surviving Rosenwald
schools, and possibly also at the sites of some of the 14 Rosenwald
schools no longer standing. Because of the successful renovation
and reopening of Highland Park School, it was the school chosen
to receive the first marker. On May 29, 2002, a ceremony was
held at Highland Park, and the handsome marker was unveiled
on the front lawn of the 1928 school; again a group of loyal
alumni/alumnae gathered to celebrate and reminisce. The bronze
marker (a sturdy 18x24-inch plaque mounted on a sturdy shaft)
has on each side a graphic illustration of the 1928 building
as well as text in gold lettering describing the history and
significance of the school. At the unveiling, the chairman
of the Trust stated, ABy recognizing Highland Park School,
we have promoted public awareness of the impact that Rosenwald
schools had on the advancement of public education. This marker
will serve as a permanent reminder of what can be accomplished
when people work together across racial, ethnic and cultural
lines and with the cooperation of the public and private sector.
The PGCH&CT has established a fund to finance the production
and erection of markers for other Rosenwald schools in the
County.
The Highland Park School has been a prominent landmark in its
community from its earliest days. It represents Prince George's
County's response to pressures for increased local educational
opportunities from emerging black communities, and marks a significant
step in the progress of the African-American educational movement.
It is a significant physical reminder of the historical role
of the Rosenwald school program. Although the original building
is now part of a much larger structure, it still conveys its
original architectural characteristics. More importantly, its
devoted and loyal graduates have achieved their goal of the rebirth
and recognition of their school. For them, the school is a symbol
of all that they represent, and all that they hope for the next
generations of their children.
Susan G. Pearl, Historian
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