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ATLANTA (June 16, 2017) – Fairview School has been listed in the National Register of Historic
Places. The property is located
at 278 Padlock Mountain Road SW in Cave Spring (Floyd County). The
nomination is sponsored by the City of Rome and the Fairview-E.S. Brown
Heritage Corporation. Nomination materials were prepared by Joseph Smith of
Hall Smith Office Architecture and HPD archaeologists.
Fairview
School is an approximately 3.5-acre campus located on Padlock Mountain Road,
about one-half mile east of downtown Cave Spring. The property consists of a circa-1945
former classroom building, plus the remnants of other school buildings and
structures that were constructed on multiple terraces on steep, previously
cultivated agricultural land.
Fairview
School was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as significant in
the areas of ethnic heritage (African American) and education, as a rare
example of an entire African American school campus constructed before the
landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. It is
the only remaining property of this type surviving in Cave Spring. The initial
three-teacher classroom building (not extant) was constructed in 1924-1925 with
funding provided by the Rosenwald Fund, a philanthropic organization founded by
Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington. The property was deeded to the Floyd
County Board of Education by local residents.
The school
also has an association with the prominent Chubb family, of Cave Spring. The
Chubb family is significant because of their rarity and self-sufficiency as a
free black family in Georgia prior to the Civil War. The Fairview School
expanded to accommodate a growing student body, and three additional buildings
were constructed on the campus in the 1940s. Of these, only the first-grade
classroom building is extant; however, the foundations and chimney remnants of
the three other classroom buildings remain, and their sites have produced
material significant to understanding the development and use of the property
as a whole. Additionally, the property is significant for historic archaeology
due to the property’s ability to reveal information significant about the past.
Artifacts recovered from the property include historic ink and medicine
bottles, students’ supplies, and building materials that can inform
archaeologists about the buildings and the daily lives of the student body.
The National Register of Historic Places is
our country's official list of historic buildings, structures, sites, objects,
and districts worthy of preservation. The National Register provides formal
recognition of a property's architectural, historical, or archaeological
significance. It also identifies historic properties for planning purposes, and
insures that these properties will be considered in the planning of state or
federally assisted projects. National Register listing encourages preservation
of historic properties through public awareness, federal and state tax
incentives, and grants. Listing in the National Register does not place
obligations or restrictions on the use, treatment, transfer, or disposition of
private property.
The
Historic Preservation Division (HPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural
Resources serves as Georgia’s state historic preservation office. Its mission
is to promote the preservation and use of historic places for a better
Georgia. HPD’s programs include
archaeology protection and education, environmental review, grants, historic
resource surveys, tax incentives, the National Register of Historic Places,
community planning and technical assistance.
The
mission of the Department of Natural Resources is to sustain, enhance, protect
and conserve Georgia’s natural, historic and cultural resources for present and
future generations, while recognizing the importance of promoting the
development of commerce and industry that utilize sound environmental
practices.
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For press inquiries contact Historic Preservation Division
Public Affairs Coordinator Jeff Harrison – 770-389-7869 and jeff.harrison@dnr.ga.gov
The above is a news release from the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Releases can be found online at www.georgiashpo.org.
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