The Campaign To Create a Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park Historic Context Inventory & Analysis October 2018 2 Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools NHP Campaign The Campaign To Create a Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park Historic Context Inventory & Analysis October 2018 Prepared by: EHT TRACERIES, INC. 440 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20001 Laura Harris Hughes, Principal Bill Marzella, Project Manager John Gentry, Architectural Historian October 2018 3 Dedication This report is dedicated to the National Parks and Conservation Association and the National Trust for Historic Preservation for their unwavering support of and assistance to the Rosenwald Park Campaign in its mission to establish a Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park. It is also dedicated to the State Historic Preservation Officers and experts in fifteen states who work so tirelessly to preserve the legacy of the Rosenwald Schools and who recommended the fifty-five Rosenwald Schools and one teacher’s home to the Campaign for possible inclusion in the proposed park. Cover Photos: Julius Rosenwald, provided by the Rosenwald Park Campaign; early Rosenwald School in Alabama, Architect Magazine; St. Paul’s Chapel School, Virginia Department of Historic Resources; Sandy Grove School in Burleson County, Texas, 1923, Texas Almanac. Rear Cover Photos: Interior of Ridgeley Rosenwald School, Maryland. Photo by Tom Lassiter, Longleaf Productions; Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington, Rosenwald documentary. 4 Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools NHP Campaign Table of Contents Executive Summary 6 Introduction 8 Julius Rosenwald’s Life and Philanthropy 10 Biography of Julius Rosenwald 10 Rosenwald’s Philanthropic Activities 16 Rosenwald’s Approach to Philanthropy 24 Significance of Julius Rosenwald 26 African American Education and the Rosenwald Schools Program 26 African American Education in the Rural South 26 Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Institute 28 Rosenwald Schools Program 30 Achievements, Significance, and Impact of Rosenwald Schools 37 Notable Rosenwald School Alumni and Their Contributions 39 Description of Rosenwald Schools 41 Typical Property Types 41 Architectural Evolution of the Rosenwald School Properties 43 Evaluation of Rosenwald Schools 46 Introduction 46 National Park Service Thematic Framework 48 Existing National Register Documentation 49 National Historic Landmark Theme Studies 49 Comparable Properties 52 Significance of Rosenwald Schools 57 Integrity of Rosenwald Schools 58 Factors To Consider in Identifying Rosenwald Schools To Be Included in the Park 61 Appendices 63 Appendix A: Architectural Plans and Elevations by Period 64 Appendix B: Rosenwald Buildings and Capacity by State 81 Appendix C: Types of Rosenwald Schools and Their Cost 82 Appendix D: State Recommendations of Rosenwald Schools for Consideration 83 Appendix E: Rosenwald Fund Fellowship Recipients 93 Bibliography 119 Secondary Sources 119 National Park Service Guidance Documents 120 Archival Repositories 121 October 2018 5 Executive Summary The Rosenwald Park Campaign was founded in 2016 to promote the establishment of the Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park. The mission of the park will be to interpret the life and legacy of Julius Rosenwald and the enormous impact of the thousands of schools he helped build had on African American education in the twentieth century. As envisioned by the Campaign, the park will include a visitor center in Chicago and a representative sample of Rosenwald Schools, to be selected by National Park Service. Among the earliest efforts of the Campaign was to identify extant school properties to be included in the National Park designation. These recommendations were solicited and received from State Historic Preservation Officers (SHPOs) in the fifteen southern states in which Rosenwald Schools were constructed. Upon receiving recommendations for fifty-six school Figure 1: Julius Rosenwald, undated facilities, the Campaign concluded that the next image (University of Chicago). important step would be to create a historic context study to examine in detail the legacy of Julius Rosenwald with special emphasis on the Rosenwald Schools. This document represents the fruits of those labors. Rosenwald’s Legacy Born in 1862 to once-impoverished immigrant parents, Julius Rosenwald, through ingenuity and enterprise, rose quickly through the emerging Midwestern mercantile industry to reach its pinnacle as the President of Sears, Roebuck & Company. He intuited value in the fledgling Sears, Roebuck in the early 1890s, investing in the company upon the recommendation of his brother- in-law Aaron Nusbaum after the withdrawal of the company’s cofounder Alvah P. Roebuck. With Richard Sears’s genius for advertising and promotion, Rosenwald’s peerless managerial skills, and the explosion of manufacturing in the early twentieth century that produced many new products for American households, Sears emerged as the retailing powerhouse of the early twentieth century. As a result, both Sears and Rosenwald became extremely wealthy. Apart from his business acumen, Rosenwald demonstrated a conscience deeply invested in the dignity of the human spirit, in lifting up the unfortunate and oppressed, and in helping those who displayed the willingness and capacity to help themselves. Inspired by the doctrines of Rabbi Emil Hirsch, of whose Chicago synagogue he was a member, Rosenwald became intensely dedicated to the cause of social justice. Julius Rosenwald embodied the Jewish concept of tzedakah— righteousness and charity—providing support to a wide range of philanthropic causes throughout his lifetime. These included African American communities, Jews in Europe, and those newly arrived to this country, and academic, scientific, and cultural institutions. He was the driving force for the creation of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and its main benefactor. After reading Booker T. Washington’s autobiography Up from Slavery, Rosenwald expanded 6 Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools NHP Campaign his philanthropic endeavors on behalf of African Americans. Rosenwald’s interest in African Americans stemmed directly from his Jewish identity, as both groups had experienced prolonged oppression and persecution. Starting in 1910, Rosenwald made the first of a series of challenge grants to African American YMCAs, on the condition that the communities raised three-quarters of the cost themselves. This initiative eventually resulted in over twenty YMCA’s throughout the country. After meeting Washington in 1911, Rosenwald joined the board of the Tuskegee Institute. Washington proposed using some of the funding Rosenwald gave to Tuskegee as part of the donations he made to commemorate his fiftieth birthday for a pilot building program of six schools in rural Alabama, for which Rosenwald would make specific contributions on the stipulation that local communities and governmental agencies would donate prescribed amounts. This pilot effort expanded into the Rosenwald Schools program, which between 1912 and 1932 resulted in the construction of over 5,000 school facilities in fifteen states across the American South. Like the YMCA program, Rosenwald provided only a portion of the funds to erect each school building. The remainder—in the form of money, land, and labor—was the responsibility of local communities and states in which the schools were constructed. Located predominantly in rural areas, these schools became the focus of civic pride and gratitude toward Rosenwald. A great majority of these schools were small, accommodating only one or two teachers and a few dozen students at a time. Nevertheless, their impact was enormous. By 1932, it was estimated that one-third of African Americans living in the south were being educated at a Rosenwald School. Many of these buildings survive today and remain a focus of community pride and a stimulus for grass-roots historic preservation campaigns. In 1917, Rosenwald established the Julius Rosenwald Fund to administer his many charitable contributions. Although at first focused on the schools program, by 1928 the Fund expanded to include a fellowship program to support African American contributions to the arts and sciences. Between 1928 and 1948, the Fund awarded fellowships to nearly nine hundred artists, musicians, writers, educators, scientists, and scholars—eventually representing the largest and most influential single patron of African American arts and letters in the twentieth century. Several fellows played a direct role in the advancement of the Civil Rights movement, notably the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. The Julius Rosenwald and Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park In consideration of the momentous influence of Rosenwald and his professional, personal, and philanthropic contributions to American history, this historic context study has concluded that the proposed park will be a substantial enhancement to the National Park System. Julius Rosenwald is nationally significant for his contributions in philanthropy, notably the advancement of African American education through the Rosenwald Schools and the growth of the arts, humanities, and social justice through the Rosenwald Fund. The schools themselves are nationally significant as powerful, tangible exemplars of the struggle for education among African Americans in the rural south in the first part of the twentieth century.