Title	Durham's Chapel School: grave marker
Creator(s)	West, Carroll Van, photographer
Date	2004
Coverage	2000-2009
Property name	Durham's Chapel Baptist Church, Cemetery, and School
Property type	School
Additional property type	Cemetery ; Church
Community Name	Bethpage, Sumner County, TN
Description	Color photograph of grave marker in wooded area. Tablet style marker contains an inscription with the letters, "H ' Y. R. W."
Historical Notes	Durham's Chapel Baptist Church, located in rural Sumner County, Tennessee, dates back to 1866. Throughout the years, the church building has been updated and remodeled at least twice. A cemetery, dating to 1870, accompanies the church. Durham's Chapel is perhaps best known for the Rosenwald school that still stands in the vicinity of the church. Durham's Chapel School was funded partially through the Julius Rosenwald Fund's School Building Program. The local black community raised $1,525, the Rosenwald Fund granted $700, and Sumner County supplemented the balance using public funds. The building, dating to 1923, was constructed according to the standardized plans for a two-teacher school with industrial room. Sitting on a limestone block foundation, the one-story building features weatherboard siding and a shingle cross-gable roof. The building serves as an example of a Rosenwald school with Craftsman-inspired decorative elements, including exposed rafter tails and wide-overhanging eaves. In addition to two classrooms, the school contained an industrial room used originally for home economics training. The industrial room currently functions as a kitchen and storage area. Historic resources associated with the school can also be found in the schoolyard. These resources, all dating to the 1923 construction date, include the Girls' Privy, the Boys' Privy, a well and water pump, and an original concrete sidewalk. According to the 2008 historic structure report, "the Durham's Chapel School documents the development and evolution of a rural African American enclave of settlement, education, and religion during the Jim Crow era (1890-1955) of segregation in Sumner County, Tennessee."
Collection Name	Rosenwald Schools
Subject-LCSH	African American cemeteries Graveposts
Subject-AAT	Tombstones Inscriptions
Subject-TGM	Tombs & sepulchral monuments
Type	Still image
Genre	Photograph
Medium	Paper
Extent	4 x 6 in.
Copyright status	Copyright of the creator. Reproduced with permission
Contributing Institution	Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University
Conditions for use	Credit Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University Reproduction permitted for non-profit educational and research purposes only
Digital Publisher	Digital Initiatives, James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University

Durham's Chapel School: grave marker

Description