Central School, also known as Bessemer City Elementary School, is a historic

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

complex located at Bessemer City,

Gaston County, North Carolina Gaston County is a county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 227,943. The county seat is Gastonia. Dallas served as the original county seat from 1846 until 1911. Gaston County is included in the ...

. The main school building was built about 1929, and is a two-story, "U"-plan brick building with

Collegiate Gothic Collegiate Gothic is an architectural style subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries for college and high school buildings in the United States and Canada, and to a certain extent Europ ...

detailing. It was rebuilt following a fire in 1942. Adjacent to the school is the Rustic Revival style, rough cut stone

gym A gym, short for gymnasium (: gymnasiums or gymnasia), is an indoor venue for exercise and sports. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasion". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learn ...

nasium built in 1933 with funds provided by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

. Other contributing buildings are the Home Economics Building (c. 1938-1939), Classroom Building (c. 1953), and Storage Shed (c. 1953). It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2008.

References

Works Progress Administration in North Carolina School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Gothic Revival architecture in North Carolina School buildings completed in 1929 Buildings and structures in Gaston County, North Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Gaston County, North Carolina 1929 establishments in North Carolina Brick buildings and structures in North Carolina {{GastonCountyNC-NRHP-stub