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El Canaan Baptist Church and Allen-White School
Whiteville
Hardeman County
Located in the heart of a historic African American community immediately north of downtown
commercial district of Whiteville is the El Canaan Baptist Church and the adjacent Allen-White
school.
El Canaan Baptist Church is a large Gothic-influenced brick building, constructed in 1920, that
has had various additions since its original construction. Members of the congregation
undertook the construction of the building. The pastor at the time of construction was Reverend
W. W. Matlock of Memphis. A second period of construction took place after 1944 when Rev. L.
Nelson of Ripley, Tennessee, became the minister. In 1978 to 1988 a third period of
construction and renovation took place at the church during the ministry of Rev. K. C. Sain. In
1988 the church purchased the adjacent Allen-White School property. Rev. Guy Hendree led
the effort to place the building on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004-2005.
Powerful family and community links have always existed between the church and the school.
Once the school was closed, the church acquired the school property. Today, the El Canaan
Community Help Organization (ECHO), which is a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization, administers
the school property and is leading the cause to rebuild the school after a disastrous arson in
May 2012.
The Allen-White School is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a local and state
significant property. Dr. Carroll Van West of the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation
prepared the nomination in 2005.
Allen-White School description
The Allen-White School, built 1918-1920, is a one-story H-plan brick school building that has a
brick and concrete foundation and a metal gable and hipped roof. It was built according to
Rosenwald School Plan 6-A, for a six-teacher school with auditorium and six classrooms.
Situated in a residential area with no landscaping, the vacant school building has been boarded
up. The interior iS! in poor condition, but the building retains sufficient integrity of design and
materials.
The south fa,cade has a symmetrical central section, covered by a hipped roof, of seven bays.
A central entrance that is boarded by a new wood door, is flanked by three window openings
that are now boarded. At the cornice are three sets of symmetrically placed small rectangular
windows, each of fixed four pane lights. The windows over the central entrance contain two
two-over-two light windows. Flanking the central entrance are three two-over-two light window
frames. At the point where the central section meets the gabled-end wings are wood doors that
provide additional access to the building. The gabled-end wings are solid brick walls, like the
central section. On the east wing, a dedication marker for the H.C.T. S. (Hardeman County
Training School) was installed c. 1928. A concrete porch has two wood square posts that
support a flat roof, which has been covered in vinyl and metal. The metal roofing and vinyl
eaves and gable fields are circa 2002 when the owner took steps to stabilize and protect the
school.
The east and west elevations are similar. Both consist of three large bays, one for each
classroom, and the bay is composed of the typical Rosenwald bank of six nine-over-nine
Object Description
| Title | ElCanaan Missionary Baptist Church and Allen-White School: brief history |
| Date | 2005? |
| Coverage | 20th century |
| Property name |
ElCanaan Missionary Baptist Church |
| Additional property name | Allen-White School |
| Property type | Church |
| Additional property type | School |
| National Register Reference | 05001214 Listed November 2005 (school only) |
| Community Name |
Whiteville, Hardeman County, TN |
| Description | Typescript document that summarizes the history of ElCanaan Missionary Baptist Church and Allen-White School, with citations to sources. |
| Historical Notes | The Allen-White High School was built 1918-1920 with support of the Julius Rosenwald Fund. ElCanaan M.B. Church was constructed in 1920. When the school closed, the building was acquired by a non-profit organization associated with the Church. The school building was destroyed by arson in May of 2012. |
| Collection Name | African American Churches |
| Transcript | El Canaan Baptist Church and Allen-White School Whiteville Hardeman County Located in the heart of a historic African American community immediately north of downtown commercial district of Whiteville is the El Canaan Baptist Church and the adjacent Allen-White school. El Canaan Baptist Church is a large Gothic-influenced brick building, constructed in 1920, that has had various additions since its original construction. Members of the congregation undertook the construction of the building. The pastor at the time of construction was Reverend W. W. Matlock of Memphis. A second period of construction took place after 1944 when Rev. L. Nelson of Ripley, Tennessee, became the minister. In 1978 to 1988 a third period of construction and renovation took place at the church during the ministry of Rev. K. C. Sain. In 1988 the church purchased the adjacent Allen-White School property. Rev. Guy Hendree led the effort to place the building on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004-2005. Powerful family and community links have always existed between the church and the school. Once the school was closed, the church acquired the school property. Today, the El Canaan Community Help Organization (ECHO), which is a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization, administers the school property and is leading the cause to rebuild the school after a disastrous arson in May 2012. The Allen-White School is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a local and state significant property. Dr. Carroll Van West of the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation prepared the nomination in 2005. Allen-White School description The Allen-White School, built 1918-1920, is a one-story H-plan brick school building that has a brick and concrete foundation and a metal gable and hipped roof. It was built according to Rosenwald School Plan 6-A, for a six-teacher school with auditorium and six classrooms. Situated in a residential area with no landscaping, the vacant school building has been boarded up. The interior iS! in poor condition, but the building retains sufficient integrity of design and materials. The south fa,cade has a symmetrical central section, covered by a hipped roof, of seven bays. A central entrance that is boarded by a new wood door, is flanked by three window openings that are now boarded. At the cornice are three sets of symmetrically placed small rectangular windows, each of fixed four pane lights. The windows over the central entrance contain two two-over-two light windows. Flanking the central entrance are three two-over-two light window frames. At the point where the central section meets the gabled-end wings are wood doors that provide additional access to the building. The gabled-end wings are solid brick walls, like the central section. On the east wing, a dedication marker for the H.C.T. S. (Hardeman County Training School) was installed c. 1928. A concrete porch has two wood square posts that support a flat roof, which has been covered in vinyl and metal. The metal roofing and vinyl eaves and gable fields are circa 2002 when the owner took steps to stabilize and protect the school. The east and west elevations are similar. Both consist of three large bays, one for each classroom, and the bay is composed of the typical Rosenwald bank of six nine-over-ninedouble-hung sash window frames. At the approximate center of the east elevation a single wood door was installed c. 1980, when the building had stopped being a school and was converted into an industrial facility. The north elevation, or rear of the school, has projecting brick gable wings like the facade. A metal shed roof porch, supported by metal (east) and wood (west) posts, covers a central entrance of a double leaf door capped with transom. Flanking the central entrance are two sets of three window frames. In the projecting brick wings, there are two additional window openings. All windows openings are now boarded. At the interior corners of both projecting wings are single entrances, now boarded, with shed roofs. These side entrances and roofs date to the building's original construction. The interior was largely arranged around the auditorium, which comprised the dominant space of this type of Rosenwald-plan building. In the original plan for the school, the front doors opened into a hallway that ended at doors for the auditorium. On the west side of the hallway was the school office and a cloakroom. On the east side was the school library and a cloakroom. The auditorium was large (roughly 34 x 48 feet) multi-purpose room. On the west and east side of the auditorium were the gabled wings, which contain three classes on the west wing while the east wing contains the stage/community room, with a classroom on the north and south sides of the stage/community room. In 2012, arsonists burned the building. The original floor plan of the school is intact, but only portions of the original walls remain. Immediately north of the Allen-White School, and connected by a concrete sidewalk, is a 1964 brick elementary school building that has a flat asphalt roof. The building has ten roughly equal sized classrooms on either side of a central hallway, with offices and restrooms located in the center of the building. The flat asphalt roof has been damaged for sometime and substantial deterioration of several classrooms has taken place. Allen-White School history The Allen-White School, ir'l Whiteville, Hardeman County, Tennessee, is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for its statewide significance in rural African American education. As the state's first brick Rosenwald school, the school was also among the first of the county training schools (similar to today's high schools) constructed for rural African-American Tennesseans in the second decade of the twentieth century. When compared to the state's other Rosenwald schools, the property's multiple sources of funding are not unique. Most Rosenwald schools, however, depended on those multiple sources coming from the local community and perhaps the state. In developing the Allen-White School, local citizens reached out to national sources to an unprecedented degree and raised the largest single amount that African Americans ever contributed to the construction of a Rosenwald school in Tennessee. The goal of local residents was to build the best possible educational institutional. Within a decade, largely due to the leadership of principal James Herbert White, residents achieved their goal to such a degree that the school attracted students from surrounding counties and states. By 1930, the accredited school provided high school classes for students who boarded in Whiteville from surrounding Tennessee counties and the states of Arkansas and Mississippi. The lure for students from other states was just not the school's location in southwest Tennessee-schools in Memphis were closer to Arkansas and most of the Mississippi students-but its accredited programs and its reputation for quality academic and extracurricular programs. By the 1940s, the school was one of a few in the South that served as part of Fisk University's Southern Rural Life Program that sociologist Charles S. Johnson directed. The nominated property also has significant local associations in African-American education and social history as the first high school provided to African American citizens of Hardeman County. Jesse C. Allen began a school for African-American children in the Whiteville Masonic Lodge (not extant) in 1905, and by the late 191 Os, enrollment exceeded the capacity of the lodge. In response, some African Americans of Whiteville, together with other African Americans in Hardeman County, petitioned county officials as well as the Julius Rosenwald Fund for support to build a new school. Already new county training schools (the rough equivalent of a high school) had been built for African Americans in neighboring Fayette County (at Somerville), Haywood County (at Brownsville), Madison County (at Denmark), and Shelby County (at Woodstock). As the latter two counties indicate, the "colored training schools," as they were known, were not always located in the county seat or the largest town in a county. Such would be the case in Hardeman County. The result of local activism was the funding and construction, between 1918 and 1920, ofthe Hardeman County Training School in Whiteville. The building was the first brick Rosenwald school constructed in Tennessee. 1 However, the funding for the school represented a significant investment by local African-American residents. The Rosenwald Fund provided $1,600 while local white residents provided an additional $1,600 and $2,000 came from public coffers. The rest of the cost--$9,000-came from the local African American community. This amount was the largest single amount raised in the state of Tennessee by African Americans for the construction of a Rosenwald school-it even exceeded the amount raised by Memphis African Americans for the Manassas High School, the largest Rosenwald school constructed in the state.2 The Rosenwald School Building Program was first administered at Tuskegee College and, starting in 1920, at a Nashville office by Samuel L. Smith for the Julius Rosenwald Fund. Historian Mary S. Hoffschwelle notes that the Rosenwald schools program "was a major effort to improve the quality of public education for African Americans in the early 201h-century South. By 1928, one in every five rural schools for black students in the South was a Rosenwald school and these schools housed one third of the region's rural black schoolchildren and teachers. At the program's conclusion in 1932, it had produced 4,977 schools [354 in Tennessee]." 3 Planning and fundraising for the school began in late 1918 and construction was underway in 1920. Clay Crowder, a local black merchant, donated land for the school next to El Canaan Baptist Church in 1920. A report of B. M. Younge to Tuskegee College officials in May 1920 reported that during a meeting on May 6 in Whiteville he witnessed a successful fundraising event. "One farmer," Younge reported, "pledged $100 each year so long as the demand for school aid warranted it." A month later, Younge was again in Whiteville and he found that the plans "are practically complete for the erection of the building there. I did little other than helped 1 Samuel L. Smith so noted that the Whiteville school was the first on the back of an early photograph of the school after its completion. Smith noted that the building followed Plan 6-A and that it was built 1918- 1919. Julius Rosenwald Fund Archives, Box 560, Folder 3. 2 List of Schools Built in Tennessee to 1930, Julius Rosenwald Fund Collection, Fisk University. Copy in Rosenwald Fund Research, MTSU Center for Historic Preservation. 3 Mary S. Hoffschwelle, Preserving Rosenwald Schools (Washington: National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2004 ), 1.[sic] the Principal set upon methods to get other funds together which will late been [sic] necessary toward the building."4 The farmer that Younge identified is believed to be Crawford Robertson, who served as the treasurer of the fundraising campaign. Robertson, born into slavery in Arkansas in 1856, moved to Tennessee as a young man and began to accumulate property, owning eventually over 200 acres of land (which has been identified as a Tennessee Century Farm in 2004). Lacking education themselves, Crawford Robertson and his wife Cora Piece Robertson strongly believed in education for their seven children. They paid the necessary fees for three daughters to attend boarding high schools in Nashville (Tennessee A&l) and in Woodstock (Shelby County Training School). According to a county history, Crawford Robertson is credited with providing "moneys to pay for building materials for the construction of the school. Materials had arrived by train and funds were not sufficient to pay for them. With daughter Myrtle, Crawford canvassed the community by buggy seeking continued financial support" for the school.5 A 1921 report to the General Education Board, a Rockefeller philanthropy administered nationally by Wickliffe Rose, a native of Saulsbury in southern Hardeman County, provides a valuable look at the school in its formative years. For the 1920-1921 school year, the report listed the school as occupying 3.5 acres, with% acre in cultivation. The school employed five years, a nine-month school term. The school had 303 students, an increase of 99 students from the previous year, with 16 of these taking classes above the seventh grade. The new brick school building was valued at $15,000, with its equipment valued at $500 and its land at $350. Additional financial support for the building and equipment came from various sources. The General Education Board provided $900 in funding, with $250 going to Home Economics equipment, $500 for industrial shop equipment, and $150 going for blackboards, with the latter number matched by the community. Public funds totaled $3,100 and all other sources chipped in $2,191. Part of this latter number came from the John Slater Fund, which typically supported the school's needs with grants between $300 and $400 each year in the 1920s.6 Due to the consistent improvements in equipment provided by the General Education Board, the Slater Fund, and the all-important local initiatives and fund-raising, the school continued to grow in the numbers of high school students. A pivotal moment came in 1928 when James Herbert White became principal, a position he held for the next twenty years. White convinced the community to focus on raising standards and establishing a true high school program, which would receive accreditation. He also began a major fundraising campaign to eradicate the school's debt. Thus in 1928-29, local residents re-dedicated the school as the Allen-White High 4 "Report Rosenwald Schoolhouse Building for the State of Tennessee Month Ending May 31, 1920, B.M. Younge Agent," Robert R. Moton Papers, General Correspondence, Box 51, Folder 2400," Tuskegee University Archives, Tuskegee AI; "Report Rosenwald Schoolhouse Building for the State of Tennessee Month Ending June 30, 1920," B. M. Younge Agent," ibid., Folder 3400, ibid.; Hardeman County Historical Sketches (Bolivar: Hardeman County Historical Commission, 1979), n.p. 5 Hardeman County Tennessee Family History, Volume II. (Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing Co., 2001 ), 198; "Robertson Farm, Hardeman County," Tennessee Century Farms Project, MTSU Center for Historic Preservation. 6 "Memorandum November 30, 1920," General Education Board Papers, Series I, Sub-Series I, Box 158, Folder 1473, Rockfeller Archive Center; "Summary of Reports, County Training Schools in Tennessee, 1920-1921," General Education Board Papers, Series 1, Sub-series 2, Box 294, Folder 3064, Rockefeller Archive Center; "Training Schools-Tennessee (Slater Fund)," Tennessee Commissioner of Education Papers, Record Group 92, Box 273, Folder 11 , Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville. For more on Wickliffe Rose, see his biography by MaryS. Hoffschwelle in Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, online edition (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2003), http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net.School. In 1933, the school graduated its first class from the four-year accredited high school program.7 The success of the high school program attracted students from throughout the county, but the school's location in the northwest corner of the county made transportation exceedingly difficult. For several years Johnnie Robertson of Whiteville transported students there on a flatbed truck. Principal White attacked this problem by encouraging the school PTA, in 1933, to purchase a school bus. It traveled the western half of the county, from Grand Junction to Whiteville, averaging 64 miles a day. The county school board provided no support for bus transportation and during the depression years it was exceedingly difficult for African Americans to afford the cost-at one dollar per student per month. The PTA raised funds for a second bus in 1934, but this vehicle was reserved for the use of the school's athletic teams and particularly its concert group, "Allen-White Laughland and Minstrel Show," which was a primary fundraiser for the school and traveled to communities across Tennessee and Mississippi.8 In 1936, county officials finally offered some public assistance for bus transportation after private citizens had stepped up and purchased a bus. Austin Fentress, an African American resident of Bolivar, operated the bus on a subscription basis, but the county soon assumed a part of the cost by paying him $90 a month and still allowing Fentress (who owned the bus) to charge $1 a month per pupil for transportation. Fentress transported an average of 50 mostly high school students a day. After increasing the number of high school students through bus transportation, Principal White began to expand both the physical plant and the curriculum of the school. In 1936 White opened a dormitory (not extant) for students (who stayed there during the week and returned home on weekends) with support from the National Youth Administration. The school became regionally known for its music and sports program. The strategy of traveling musical groups to raise money and visibility for African American education dated to the early emancipation era schools, such as the Jubilee Singers at Fisk University (NR 2/9/78). Developing outstanding sports teams for the same purpose was a comparatively more recent development. As historian Patrick B. Miller stresses: Many spokesmen for uplift assimilation strenuously promoted the organization of sports in the schools and colleges of the South. Working behind the veil of segregation in an environment overwhelmingly hostile to any claims of black self-worth, a new generation of African American educators and students remained extremely conscious of their isolation, as well as their need for circumspection. They believed, nevertheless, that . .. athletic accomplishment could strengthen the sense of racial pride among black southerners and at the same time encourage them to identify with 'national' pastimes. At the very least, games and races might relieve for a short time the burdens of labor, the daily ordeal of enforced deference . . . Conceived in terms such as self-respect and social engagement, sport served many purposes. For many "New Negroes," its potential 7 Ms. Cleaster K. Sain, "Allen-White's History," Local History Room, Bolivar Public Library, Bolivar, TN; Alfreeda Lake McKinney, "Allen-White School, 1933-1970," Chronicle of Black History in Hardeman County, Tennessee (Bolivar: Hardeman County Black History Committee, 1979), 4-7. 8 McKinney, "Allen-White School," 4-7. role in forging racial solidarity as well as channeling the energy and aspirations of southern blacks seemed immense.9 White's strategy brought quick benefits. The 1938 Allen-White team, coached by White, won the 1938 National High School Basketball Tournament for Colored, in a competition at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. (In 1945, the tournament moved to Tennessee A&l in Nashville, where it stayed until its end in the late 1960s.) 10 In 1940, support from the National Youth Administration led to the construction of Cheek Hall, a new building for domestic science instruction (not extant). The school added more tracks to its curriculum, such as business education and building trades. As the reputation of the school grew, and due to the presence of the boarding house, students enrolled from twelve other Tennessee counties as well as Mississippi and Arkansas. The training programs at Allen-White prepared students for their adult lives as trades people, teachers, and farmers. By the time of World War II, the campus of the Allen-White School included six buildings. The success of the school attracted educational leaders. President Thomas E. Jones of Fisk University established a teaching internship program at the school, which Fisk identified as its Southern Rural Life Program, under the direction of noted sociologist Charles S. Johnson. In a 1945 article on rural education programs, educator Alethea H. Washington noted James H. White as one of the principal professors of "the practical direction of this excellent setup."11 The school carried on an impressive relationship with the community. It was a center of public performing arts programs and concerts. Its gymnasium held local and regional basketball tournaments.12 In 1948, Principal White resigned to accept the presidency of Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee. White is a very important person in the history of secondary and higher education in the South. Only two years after accepting the presidency of Lane College, White in 1950 accepted the presidency of the newly created Mississippi Vocational College (now Mississippi Valley State University) in ltta Bena, Mississippi. He remained the college's president until1971 and in 1979 he published a history of the school, titled Up from a Cotton Patch: J. H. White and the Development of Mississippi Valley State College. After White, CarlL. Seets became the next principal and served until1952. Seets introduced typing and shorthand to the domestic science curriculum as to emphasize that African-American women could be more than tenant farmers or domestic servants. Major A. Jarrett became principal in 1952 and he added new courses in Business Education and in Building Trades. Allen-White was the only high school for African-American students until 1959 when the Bolivar Industrial School was expanded and took high school students. The school closed as a segregated facility in 1970, when the schools of Whiteville integrated, but Allen-White Elementary, renamed Whiteville Northside, remained opened. Major A. Jarrett remained principal until his retirement in 1979. 9 Patrick B. Miller, "To 'Bring the Race along Rapidly': Sport, Student Culture, and Educational Mission at Historically Black Colleges during the Interwar Years," History of Education Quarterly 35(Summer 1995): 112. 10 A photograph of the team is in Richard Fry, Portraits of Hardeman County: A Pictorial History (Marcelline, MO: Heritage House Publications, 1995), 125; also see, Charles H. Thompson, "The History of the National Basketball Tournaments for Black High Schools," Ph. D. diss., Louisiana State University, 1980. 11 Alethea H. Washington, "Rural Education," Journal of Negro Education 14(Autumn 1945): 627. 12 "Recollections of M. Christine Rhoden," hand-written document collected as survey questionnaire about the Allen-White School, El Canaan Missionary Baptist Church, 2005. Copies of the survey were provided to the author; the originals are in the pastor's office at the El Canaan church in Whiteville. Bibliography Fry, Richard . Portraits of Hardeman County: A Pictorial History. Marcelline, MO: Heritage House Publications, 1995. General Education Board Collection. Rockefeller Archive Center. Tarrytown, New York. Hardeman County Historical Sketches. Bolivar: Hardeman County Historical Commission, 1979. Hardeman County Tennessee Family History, Volume II. Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing Co., 2001 Hoffschwelle, MaryS. Preserving Rosenwald Schools. Washington, DC: National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2004. McKinney, Alfreeda Lake. "Allen-White School, 1933-1970." Chronicle of Black History in Hardeman County, Tennessee. Bolivar: Hardeman County Black History Committee, 1979, 4-7. Miller, Patrick B. "To 'Bring the Race along Rapidly': Sport, Student Culture, and Educational Mission at Historically Black Colleges during the Interwar Years." History of Education Quarterly 35(Summer 1995): 111-123. Moton, Robert R., Collection. Tuskegee University Archives. Tuskegee, Alabama. Rhoden, M. Christine. "Recollections of Allen-White." Hand-written document collected as survey questionnaire about the Allen-White School, El Canaan Missionary Baptist Church, 2005. Rivers, Ernest L. "The History of Allen-White High School, Whiteville, Hardeman County, TN from 1930-1948." M.A. thesis, Tennessee State A&l University, 1954. "Robertson Farm, Hardeman County," Tennessee Century Farms Project, MTSU Center for Historic Preservation. Sain, Ms. Cleaster K. "Allen-White's History." Local History Room, Bolivar Public Library, Bolivar, TN . Thompson, Charles H. "The History of the National Basketball Tournaments for Black High Schools." Ph. D. diss., Louisiana State University, 1980. Tennessee Commissioner of Education Records. Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville. Washington, Althea H. "Rural Education." Journal of Negro Education 14(Autumn 1945): 622- 627. West, Carroll Van, et. al. Powerful Artifacts: Documenting Rural African-American Churches. Murfreesboro: MTSU Center for Historic Preservation and National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2000. |
| Subject-LCSH |
Churches -- Tennessee School buildings -- Tennessee |
| Subject-TGM |
Churches Schools |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Text |
| Genre | History |
| Medium | Paper |
| Extent | 7 p. |
| Copyright status | Copyright of the creator. Reproduced with permission |
| Contributing Institution | Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University |
| Conditions for use |
Reproduction permitted for non-profit educational and research purposes only Credit Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University |
| Digital Publisher | Digital Initiatives, James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University |
Description
| Title | ElCan019 1 |
| Transcript | El Canaan Baptist Church and Allen-White School Whiteville Hardeman County Located in the heart of a historic African American community immediately north of downtown commercial district of Whiteville is the El Canaan Baptist Church and the adjacent Allen-White school. El Canaan Baptist Church is a large Gothic-influenced brick building, constructed in 1920, that has had various additions since its original construction. Members of the congregation undertook the construction of the building. The pastor at the time of construction was Reverend W. W. Matlock of Memphis. A second period of construction took place after 1944 when Rev. L. Nelson of Ripley, Tennessee, became the minister. In 1978 to 1988 a third period of construction and renovation took place at the church during the ministry of Rev. K. C. Sain. In 1988 the church purchased the adjacent Allen-White School property. Rev. Guy Hendree led the effort to place the building on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004-2005. Powerful family and community links have always existed between the church and the school. Once the school was closed, the church acquired the school property. Today, the El Canaan Community Help Organization (ECHO), which is a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization, administers the school property and is leading the cause to rebuild the school after a disastrous arson in May 2012. The Allen-White School is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a local and state significant property. Dr. Carroll Van West of the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation prepared the nomination in 2005. Allen-White School description The Allen-White School, built 1918-1920, is a one-story H-plan brick school building that has a brick and concrete foundation and a metal gable and hipped roof. It was built according to Rosenwald School Plan 6-A, for a six-teacher school with auditorium and six classrooms. Situated in a residential area with no landscaping, the vacant school building has been boarded up. The interior iS! in poor condition, but the building retains sufficient integrity of design and materials. The south fa,cade has a symmetrical central section, covered by a hipped roof, of seven bays. A central entrance that is boarded by a new wood door, is flanked by three window openings that are now boarded. At the cornice are three sets of symmetrically placed small rectangular windows, each of fixed four pane lights. The windows over the central entrance contain two two-over-two light windows. Flanking the central entrance are three two-over-two light window frames. At the point where the central section meets the gabled-end wings are wood doors that provide additional access to the building. The gabled-end wings are solid brick walls, like the central section. On the east wing, a dedication marker for the H.C.T. S. (Hardeman County Training School) was installed c. 1928. A concrete porch has two wood square posts that support a flat roof, which has been covered in vinyl and metal. The metal roofing and vinyl eaves and gable fields are circa 2002 when the owner took steps to stabilize and protect the school. The east and west elevations are similar. Both consist of three large bays, one for each classroom, and the bay is composed of the typical Rosenwald bank of six nine-over-nine |
