The stout, white building off Jerusalem Road sits on what’s known, somewhat ironically, as the “Beauty Spot.” It’s a place where Poolesville residents dump their trash. Where buses refuel at a row of gas pumps.

But the structure’s six tall windows are a marker of what it once was: a school for the community’s Black children.

The building is among a handful of Montgomery County’s surviving Rosenwald schools, each one a physical reminder both of the nation’s racially segregated past and of the way Black families fought for education.

This weekend, a plaque will be installed there to ensure its story is remembered.

“Within this county public works facility lies a two-room school for African-American children,” the sign reads.

Julius Rosenwald, the president of Sears, Roebuck & Co, partnered with Tuskegee Institute founder Booker T. Washington to construct thousands of school buildings across the South during the early 20th century.

By 1928, roughly one-third of Black children in the rural South were served by these Rosenwald schools.

Rosenwald provided the seed funding, but it fell to the local Black community to raise much of the money needed to build and run these schools. Residents donated parts of their salaries, sold food and held rallies to bring in cash.

“The result was a school building that stood as a tangible expression of a community’s determination to provide a decent education for its children,” reads a 2012 report on Rosenwald preservation efforts.

Noah Edward Clarke — along with families in the Jerusalem Road, Jonesville and Big Woods communities — led the local effort to raise money for the school that now sits in Poolesville.

The schools were small structures with signature architectural elements, like thin, tall windows that let in light pour in with minimal shadows. Many Rosenwald buildings had no electricity, making these windows essential.

During the celebration on Saturday, people can peer through the glass panes and see the remnants for themselves.

The building itself has changed dramatically. It’s now used as office space, and garages have been tacked onto it.

“A lot of the flooring is gone, but you can still see the wainscoting,” community leader Link Hoewing said. “You can still see the original walls.”

That makes the building something of an outlier. According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, only 10% to 12% of the more than 5,000 Rosenwald structures are believed to survive today.

Revitalizing Rosenwalds

The effort to recognize the significance of the Rosenwald school in Poolesville has been building for years. Among those who have supported it is Tina Clarke, the granddaughter of Noah Clarke.

In a 2023 interview, Tina Clarke said she hoped people would complain enough to county leaders that they’d stop using it as a waste site.

“That’d be a great opportunity for us to rescue it and do something positive — more positive and meaningful for the community,” she said in a discussion with Poolesville Seniors.

Residents unearthed a class picture from around 1930. An accompanying roster is marked with names of Black families who still call the area home today.

Among those pictured are the Lyles. Brothers Howard and Julius Lyles were among the first students to attend the school. Howard’s son — and his namesake — also spent his early years there, in the late 1940s.

Poolesville High School leaders recently honored the younger Howard Lyles by naming the football stadium after him. But his legacy within the county’s education landscape traces back to Jerusalem Road.

“That’s part of my history,” said Lyles, now 83.

Lyles later became one of the first Black students to integrate Poolesville High in 1956, two years after the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

The Rosenwald campuses were largely shuttered after that court decision, and many fell into disuse.

Maryland had fewer Rosenwald schools than other Southern states, though it was still home to roughly 150 campuses. Surviving structures have since been converted to church halls, garages or apartments.

Across the state, communities have been pushing for recognition of formerly all-Black schools and their role in educating generations of children.

Howard County’s last all-Black high school, for example, was recently renovated and reopened as a cultural center. Carroll County’s Historic Sykesville Colored Schoolhouse was restored to its 1904 state and offers educational tours. In Harford County, the century-old Havre de Grace Colored School became the Havre de Grace Colored School Museum and Cultural Center.

Still, many other historic buildings have been razed.

Lyles said he’s grateful the plaque will highlight his school’s legacy.

“It’s part of the history of Montgomery County,” he said. “Those small Black communities were a key part in the growth and the development of that area, and it’s a nice thing to recognize them at this time.”

The commemorative event will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday at 19200 Jerusalem Road.