The Second Union School is a historic

Rosenwald school The Rosenwald School project built more than 5,000 schools, shops, and teacher homes in the United States primarily for the education of African-American children in the South during the early 20th century. The project was the product of the part ...

building for African-American children located near

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

, in western

Goochland County, Virginia Goochland County is a county located in the Piedmont of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its southern border is formed by the James River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,727. Its county seat is Goochland. Goochland County is includ ...

. It was built in 1918, as a

two-teacher school A two-room schoolhouse is a larger version of the one-room schoolhouse, with many of the same characteristics, providing the facility for primary and secondary education in a small community or rural area. While providing the same function as a c ...

, near Second Union Baptist Church, which had been founded in 1865 as an independent black congregation.

Description and history

Located on the east side of Hadensville Fife Road (Va. Route 606), the school is a one-story, two-room, weather-boarded building with a hipped slate roof. It is set on its original foundation of 18 concrete piers. Built in 1918 according to plans developed by the

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was de ...

, it was designed as a two-teacher school. Movable dividers were used to define the interior spaces. It was located near Second Union Baptist Church, an independent black congregation that had organized in 1865 after the Civil War. This is one of four schools built in the area for rural black children, under a matching program sponsored by philanthropist

Julius Rosenwald Julius Rosenwald (August 12, 1862 – January 6, 1932) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He is best known as a part-owner and leader of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and for establishing the Rosenwald Fund, which donated millions in ...

from Chicago. A total of ten were constructed in the county. The school operated with black teachers and students until 1959, when the public schools in the county were integrated. At that time, the county school board sold the building to Second Union Church, which used it for their Sunday school and Bible school classes. an
''Accompanying four photos''
/ref> This is the oldest Rosenwald school in the county that survives nearly unchanged and on its original site. It 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 ...

in 2006. Second Union Church, the county, and Goochland County Historical Society committed to restoring the building for use as a museum of black history in the county, with an emphasis on education. In 2007 the state approved a commemorative highway marker for the school. In addition, the county public school system turned over artifacts to museum organizers from the historic middle school, operated for a period as the segregated Central High School.Brad Franklin, "Second Union Gets Historic Treatment"
''Goochland Gazette'', posted in ''Richmond Post-Dispatch,'' 18 December 2007; accessed 12 January 2019 In 2009 the school received a grant from the

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by ...

to aid in needed repairs and renovation for continued use, part of a two-year round of grants to preserve Rosenwald schools. In 2016, the Virginia Association of Museums recognized the former school as a museum. Second Union (Rosenwald) School Museum and the Goochland County public schools work together by incorporating the museum's history in the Standards of Learning (SOLs). The museum is open to the public.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Rosenwald schools in Virginia School buildings completed in 1918 Buildings and structures in Goochland County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Goochland County, Virginia 1918 establishments in Virginia

Description and history

See also

References