By Associated Press
Sadieville, KY – Crews have begun to restore a historic one-room schoolhouse in central Kentucky that was built in the early 1900s to educate black students.
The Rosenwald School in Sadieville was one of about 5,000 around the nation built for that purpose.
After the school closed, the building was used as a fellowship hall for Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. The city of Sadieville bought the facility in 2008 with plans to restore it for use as a cultural heritage center, according to the Georgetown News-Graphic.
Volunteers are doing much of the work.
"The city purchased the property for $15,000," said Cindy Foster, the city clerk. "At the time we didn't know it was a Rosenwald School. We found out about a year later. We're saving one of the very few remaining in the state and it's a very important piece of history for African-Americans, for Sadieville, for Scott County, for Kentucky and the South. ... I'm just really thrilled this project is finally under way."
After city officials found out about the history of the school, they began looking for grants to preserve it. They ended up getting a $10,000 grant from Toyota, $5,000 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and $2,000 from the Friends of Sadieville.
The project has gotten both positive and negative reaction.
"The vast majority of the people I've talked to are in favor of restoration if for no other reason than we're cleaning up a piece of dilapidated property," Mayor Claude Christensen said. "Sadieville has a rich history that most folks are not aware of. It's true that some of the population is not interested in the historical preservation value, but we have a rare piece of history in the middle of town and if we want to make Sadieville a destination we need to attend to all of our resources. Frankly, a lot of these same people don't care about the condition of the streets or their own houses either."
After restoring the Rosenwald School, the city hopes to restore the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church property and turn the Angle Avenue park into a heritage park that will tie the other properties together. All have African-American history.
"The black history in Sadieville was almost lost - I didn't even know there was a black history in Sadieville," Foster said. "I feel like there's a spiritual thing - it's time for the African-American history story to be told."