Wechsler School is a historic school in

Meridian, Mississippi Meridian is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, seventh largest city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, with a population of 41,148 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census and an estimated population in 2018 of 36,347. It is the count ...

erected in 1894. The school was the first

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...

building in Mississippi built with public funds 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. It originally served primary through eighth grades but was later expanded to include high school as well. The school was named in honor of

Rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

Judah Wechsler of Congregation Beth Israel, who had led and inspired Meridian public to approve a bond issue to raise money for construction of the school. The school 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 1991 and designated a

Mississippi Landmark The following is a list of Mississippi Landmarks officially nominated by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and approved by each county's chancery clerk. The Mississippi Landmark designation is the highest form of recognition bestow ...

in 1993.

History

Original 1894 building

Early public education in Meridian was based on the 1870

Mississippi Constitution The Constitution of Mississippi is the primary organizing law for the U.S. state of Mississippi delineating the duties, powers, structures, and functions of the state government. Mississippi's original constitution was adopted at a constituti ...

. From 1870-1885, trustees appointed by the City Council served on the Board of School Directors, which had authority to operate the schools. The first public school for African Americans in the city was held in facilities rented from St. Paul Methodist Church. The

Mississippi legislature The Mississippi Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The bicameral Legislature is composed of the lower Mississippi House of Representatives, with 122 members, and the upper Mississippi State Senate, with 52 me ...

amended the city charter in January 1888 to allow the city to maintain its own municipal school district, and in March of the same year $30,000 in bonds was approved for the city to build new public schools. In 1894 when Wechsler was built, 30% of the children in the city were African American. Because of this growing number, $15,000 was used to purchase the grounds on which the building now stands. After the bond was approved in February 1894, the school was named after

Judah Wechsler, formerly of Congregation Beth Israel, who had helped raise interest in building the school. Though the first brick school for African Americans in the state of Mississippi was Union School in

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, N ...

built in 1872, Wechsler School became the first brick public school built for African Americans in Mississippi with public funding. The original building was a two-story

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

building. The first floor contained six rooms while the second floor consisted of two rooms and an auditorium. Six

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s lined each facade of the building, and the main entrance, adorned by a segmented-arched canopy, was located on the north face of the building. The building was originally heated by coal fireplaces, necessitating a small structure (now demolished) on the southwest side of the main building to store the coal. When the building was updated to have steam heating in 1914, the coal house was no longer needed.

Annexation and growth

Also in 1914, a bond issue for almost $75,000 was approved for improvements and additions to all the city's schools. From this bond, the school built a brick annex south of the original building to accommodate a rise in the number of students in Meridian's public school system. The annex is also two stories, the second of which is connected to the second floor of the 1894 building via a

skywalk A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of enclos ...

. The first and second floors of the annex were used as classrooms, while a boiler room was located in the basement. The school originally housed first through eighth grades but was expanded to twelve grades by 1921. In the 1915-16 school year, ninth and tenth grades were added; in 1919-1920, the eleventh grade was added; and in 1921-22 the twelfth grade was added with six students graduating that spring. Though several private schools such as the

Meridian Baptist Seminary Meridian Baptist Seminary is a former educational institution for African-Americans in Meridian, Mississippi. The college was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 8, 1979, but delisted in 2008 after a fire destroyed the bu ...

had been offering high school diplomas to black students before 1921, Wechsler School was the first public school in east central Mississippi to do so,African American Historic Places
/ref> and it remained the only one until 1937, when Meridian's black high school program was transferred to then new T.J. Harris High School. In the 1920s, the outside of the 1894 building was covered with

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

. Over time, the first floor was remodelled to contain an office, four classrooms, and restrooms, and the floors were covered with

linoleum Linoleum, sometimes shortened to lino, is a floor covering made from materials such as solidified linseed oil (linoxyn), Pine Resin, pine resin, ground Cork (material), cork dust, sawdust, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most com ...

. The second floor contains five classrooms, office space, a library, and restrooms. In 1922 the school added classes for adults, and in the Meridian-State Normal for Teachers moved to the school, allowing under-educated teachers to renew their teaching licenses. In 1929, fifty teachers graduated from the Normal at Wechsler. The highest number of student graduates from Wechsler was eighty-seven in the 1935-36 school year.

Decline of Wechsler

The high school (grades 9-12) moved to T.J. Harris High School in 1937, after which Wechsler served as an elementary and junior high school until 1971. Another addition was added to the campus in 1951 on the east side of the lot. The utilitarian style addition included four classrooms, an auditorium, stage, cafeteria, teachers' rooms, and showers. A staircase connects the 1894 building with the second floor of the addition, and a covered staircase leads to the entrance. Also in 1951, the basement of the 1914 annex was converted into classrooms, and the boiler room was moved to the new addition. From 1971–1983 the school was used as a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

for both black and white children, but was closed down after the 1983 school year. After being taken out of service as a school, the building was used by a theater organization from until 1986. The building then lay vacant for four years before members of the community formed the Wechsler Community Art Center in 1990. The school was listed on the

in 1991 and as a

in 1993. In 1994 the school board deeded the building to the Wechsler Community Art Center Association. The association has started raising money to develop plans for renovation and reuse. The association hosted dances and parties catered to teens as fundraisers in the late-1990s and early 21st century. In 2000, it received funds from the state under a new program of grants for African-American heritage sites. The first phase provided funding for stabilization and reuse. The association has a multi-year plan to renovate the building for an art center and extended community use.Meridian, MS – Wechsler Project
Meridian Council of the Arts Recently, a local push has been underway to convert the facility into a

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of auto ...

Former principals

Though the building was not completed until 1894, the construction bond passed in 1888, and the first principal was selected to manage the planning for the school. The former principals of the school include: * E.H. Triplett (1888–1896) * O.C. Garrett (1896–1902) * William Hopkins (1902–1916) * R.S. Groosley (1916–1918) * Thomas J. Harris (1918–1937) * Lydia Carr (1937–1945) * Jennie Ruth Crump (1945–????)

References

External links

Meridian, MS – Wechsler Project

External links

National Park Service Registration Form Wechsler School
{{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in Meridian, Mississippi School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi African-American history of Mississippi Mississippi Landmarks National Register of Historic Places in Lauderdale County, Mississippi Education segregation in Mississippi Schools in Lauderdale County, Mississippi