Bradley Academy Museum is a historic school building in

Murfreesboro, Tennessee Murfreesboro is a city in and county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 152,769 according to the 2020 census, up from 108,755 residents certified in 2010. Murfreesboro is located in the Nashville metropol ...

, that now serves as a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

and community center.

History

The original Bradley Academy was established in 1811 near

Jefferson Jefferson may refer to: Names * Jefferson (surname) * Jefferson (given name) People * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States * Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...

, the original county seat of Rutherford County, as the county's first school. Its namesake was John Bradley, an officer in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, who donated the land that the first school was built on. The school later relocated to Murfreesboro and operated as a school for

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

students until the 1850s. In 1884, Bradley Academy was revived to become the county's first school for

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

s. The current building was built circa 1917–8 and was operated as a school for

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

children until 1955, when the school moved to the current Bradley Academy location on Mercury Boulevard. Murfreesboro City Schools converted the building into a maintenance facility. In 1990 the Bradley Academy Historical Association formed with the purpose of restoring the building for community use. The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

that same year. The organization obtained funding for the restoration project from sources including the Christy-Houston Foundation, the

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

state government, and the

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Urb ...

. The building opened as a community center in 2000. It hosts exhibits on the history of Rutherford County, particularly of African Americans in the area.

Current school

The Bradley Academy name is still in use as the name of a public

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

in Murfreesboro, located at 511 Mercury Boulevard.

References

External links

Bradley Academy Museum and Cultural Center
- City of Murfreesboro, YouTube video published on Aug 21, 2014 {{National Register of Historic Places School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee School buildings completed in 1918 Buildings and structures in Rutherford County, Tennessee Education in Rutherford County, Tennessee Historically segregated African-American schools in Tennessee Museums in Rutherford County, Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Rutherford County, Tennessee 1918 establishments in Tennessee