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HomeNewsAg Extension Office to hold tour of historic Cairo Rosenwald School

Ag Extension Office to hold tour of historic Cairo Rosenwald School

utextensionThe Warfield Family and Community Education Organization will coordinate a tour of the Cairo Rosenwald School in Gallatin, TN. The tour will leave from Smith Trahern Mansion at 9:15 A.M and return at 4:15 P.M. and South Guthrie Community Center, 5025 Guthrie Road at 10:00 A.M. and return on 3:30 P.M. on September 3. Please RVSP Delinia Storr at 485-2724 or Stacy Goodwin at 648-5732. The tour is sponsored in partnership of Warfield Family and Community Education Organization, University of Tennessee of Montgomery County Extension and Montgomery County Parks and Recreation Department.

The historic Cairo Rosenwald School in Gallatin, TN
The historic Cairo Rosenwald School in Gallatin, TN

The Rosenwald Schools represent an important chapter in the history of the United States.  Originally built by Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington between 1918 and 1932 as part of a school-building program for African Americans in the rural South, today only about 10 percent of the over 5,300 buildings constructed remain standing, and many are in serious disrepair.  The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Rosenwald schools to its list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2002. Tennessee Preservation Trust’s Cairo Rosenwald School Restoration Project

About Rosenwald Schools

Chicago philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, CEO of Sears, Roebuck and Company
Chicago philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, CEO of Sears, Roebuck and Company

From the 1910s into the early 1930s, more that 5300 school buildings were constructed in African American communities throughout 15 southern states. Seed money came from Chicago philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, CEO of Sears, Roebuck and Company. Black communities put up cash, and local school boards agreed to operate the facilities.

The Cairo Rosenwald School in Gallatin was one of the 354 Rosewald Schools built in Tennessee. There are only about thirty known Tennessee Rosenwald schools still standing. In 2000 the National Trust placed these schools on the list of 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. The Cairo Rosenwald School was renovated with funding provided by the Rosenwald Initiative sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation which seeks to help preserve these beacons of African American education.

Warfield School built in 1922 in Montgomery County was a Rosenwald School. The school building now serves as The South Guthrie Community Center.

Photo Gallery

* Images of the Cairo Rosenwald School are Courtesy of the Tennessee Historic Preservation Trust.

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