ST. JOHN FAMILY LIFE & FITNESS CENTER
St. John Rosenwald School was originally constructed in 1922-1923. The St. John School was built with the support of the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which was established to provide public education for African American children in the rural American South from the 1910s through early 1930s. The St. John School was built to serve the African American community in the Cobham and Gordonsville areas in Albemarle County, Virginia.
The building was constructed on a 2.0-acre site and is an example of the T-shaped “Floor Plan No. 20,” a two-room, two-teacher design by Rosenwald Fund director Samuel L. Smith. The former school continues to occupy its original two-acre lot, which is now associated with the neighboring St. John Baptist Church. In Virginia, over 380 schools were constructed through the Rosenwald Fund, which provided African American children in rural, predominantly poor, and isolated communities with state-of-the-art facilities at a time when little to no local public tax funds were designated for their education. The St. John School was one of seven Rosenwald schools opened in Albemarle County as the county worked to provide adequate schooling for black students during the Jim Crow era of “separate but equal.”
Although the St. John School was constructed utilizing money and architectural plans provided by the Julius Rosenwald Fund, the community also played a key role in funding and constructing the school. St. John School received $700 in seed funding from the Rosenwald Fund, while the local African American community contributed an additional $400 and the white community $100. The Albemarle County school board matched these donations, and the community built the school.
The St. John School served African American students from its opening in 1923 until it closed in 1954. At that time, St. John’s students were sent to another segregated school in Albemarle County, as Virginia engaged in massive resistance to school integration for several years after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. In the early 1960’s, Albemarle County public schools were integrated, finally putting an end to racial segregation.
The building was constructed on a 2.0-acre site and is an example of the T-shaped “Floor Plan No. 20,” a two-room, two-teacher design by Rosenwald Fund director Samuel L. Smith. The former school continues to occupy its original two-acre lot, which is now associated with the neighboring St. John Baptist Church. In Virginia, over 380 schools were constructed through the Rosenwald Fund, which provided African American children in rural, predominantly poor, and isolated communities with state-of-the-art facilities at a time when little to no local public tax funds were designated for their education. The St. John School was one of seven Rosenwald schools opened in Albemarle County as the county worked to provide adequate schooling for black students during the Jim Crow era of “separate but equal.”
Although the St. John School was constructed utilizing money and architectural plans provided by the Julius Rosenwald Fund, the community also played a key role in funding and constructing the school. St. John School received $700 in seed funding from the Rosenwald Fund, while the local African American community contributed an additional $400 and the white community $100. The Albemarle County school board matched these donations, and the community built the school.
The St. John School served African American students from its opening in 1923 until it closed in 1954. At that time, St. John’s students were sent to another segregated school in Albemarle County, as Virginia engaged in massive resistance to school integration for several years after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. In the early 1960’s, Albemarle County public schools were integrated, finally putting an end to racial segregation.