Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society

Properties | Preservation Priorities

 

 

Acworth’s Rosenwald School

 

 

The Acworth Rosenwald School, circa 1924-25, was one of the over 5300 schools (242 in Georgia) built with assistance of the Julius Rosenwald School Building Fund, a philanthropic initiative that began in 1912. A Rosenwald School served as a community’s African-American public school, as this one did for over two decades. In 1948-9, when the building was slated for demolition by the Cobb County Board of Education to make way for a new school, the structure was instead donated to the African American community in Acworth to be relocated. Dismantled by volunteers, each timber and board was numbered, the nails were straightened and even roofing shingles salvaged, then stacked and stored a few blocks away, later to be rebuilt using the original materials. The Acworth Colored Community was deeded the property in 1953 and has used the property as a community center continuously since that time. It hosts parties, dances, family gatherings, reunions, holiday celebrations, and church meetings. The School, linked to the community for over 80 years, still serves as both social hall and an extension of the locals’ homes. The Rosenwald Fund School initiative, over the life of the program, involved some $4.7 million from the communities and $4.2 million in Rosenwald monies in a program that included schools, libraries, teachers’ homes and buses.

 

 

CLHS Actions:

 

Cobb Landmarks worked to secure funding for the ongoing maintenance and rehabilitation needs of the Acworth Rosenwald School. CLHS applied for and was awarded grant funding in the amount of $50,000 from the Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation Preservation Fund and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This is one of only 17 grants awarded nationally and the only project awarded in Georgia. Comprehensive project work on the school was completed in March 2009. The project was also highlighted in the April 7, 2008 edition of USA Today, as the featured property in an article about the Lowe’s/ National Trust Rosenwald initiative. Museum exhibit boards focusing on the history of the Rosenwald initiative and the Acworth Rosenwald School are being developed by Kennesaw State University’s Public History Program for permanent display in the school.

 

 

 

 

Preservation Priorities

Acworth’s Rosenwald School Acworth’s Bethel AME Church Brushy Mountain Trenches Cheney-Newcomer House Hooper-Turner House

Nesbitt/Union Chapel Power-Jackson Cabin Tapp House Wallis House

"Graduates” of our List

• Bostwick-Fraser House
• Cowen Farmstead

 

 

• Root House
• Power Cabin
• Preservation Priorities