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Support Sought for Historic Schoolhouse
by Loretta Akins
Today: The Joe Anderson School on Long Ridge
The Joe Anderson School was named after Joe Anderson, a slave belonging to J.W. Anderson, one of the founding members of Mars Hill College. Joe helped to make the bricks of the first college building. At one point he was actually put in jail as collateral until the debt the college owed on that building was paid. In 1932 Joe's ashes were moved and buried on campus, and in 1999 he was finally honored as a founding father of Mars Hill College.
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Charity Ray attended Long Ridge School... Click for story
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Hands-on Learning Had Long Roots
Click for Oral history from the early days
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Mary Wilson, now 93, taught there
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Click for past stories about African-American Education in Madison County
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A public school for whites was built at Mars Hill in the 1930's with Federal funds and is now on the National Register of Historic Places
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Because school segregation is a thing of the past, it can be easy to forget that blacks and whites used to receive educations in completely different locations. Although legally integration began in 1954, some areas, including Madison County, were slow to accept it.
The Joe Anderson School, located on Long Ridge in Mars Hill, was one of the many schools that educated black students who were not allowed to attend the white schools. Though it has long been in a state of disrepair, efforts are being made to restore and preserve it as a historic landmark.
Julius Rosenwald
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The present building was financed by Julius Rosenwald (1868-1932), who made his fortune as president and leader of Sears, Roebuck and Company. He donated millions of dollars to have schools built for African Americans in the South, including nearly 900 schools in North Carolina alone.
According to the State Department of Cultural Resources, the Long Ridge/Anderson School here in Mars Hill is the only Rosenwald School remaining in the mountain counties of the state. Several others in the eastern part of North Carolina have been restored and are now historical monuments.
The Long Ridge/Anderson School was the main school for blacks in Mars Hill from the 1920s until school integration finally came in the 1960s. Since then it has fallen into disrepair and even been used as a tobacco barn. Volunteers from the college and from Mars Hill Baptist church have discussed joining in a cleanup; however, the structure itself is somewhat dangerous.
"There is so much history with this school. It's one of the few all colored schools left. This school is a big part of Mars Hill community. The history and the community tie together," says Stuart Coates of Mars Hill Baptist's In-As-Much volunteer group. Coates is also director of emergency management in Madison County. "The individuals that live there (in the Long Ridge neighborhood) have done a lot and helped out a lot of people in Madison County. There are a lot of ties back through that community."
Charlene Ray, who graduated from Mars Hill College in 1981, wrote a research paper that year titled "The History of Blacks in Madison County: 1860 - 1981." In it she said:
"The Joe Anderson Elementary School in Mars Hill was the main educational center for Blacks in the Mars Hill area after the 1920's. This school only went to the sixth grade. After that, Blacks in the county were either fortunate enough to be sent to a boarding school like Allen School in Asheville, or they were forced to quit. Sometime in the 1930's, after agitation by such people as Viola Barnette, the State Superintendent of Education decided that funds would be allotted for Blacks to be bused from Mars Hill to Asheville to the Black high school there, Stephens Lee. The State and Madison County also provided funds for two teachers to teach at the Elementary School instead of one. At one time there were sixty-five Black students at the Joe Anderson Elementary School being taught by one teacher."
The significance of the Long Ridge/Anderson School in the history of Mars Hill became a subject of discussion recently when the owners of the property that lies out past the school asked the Madison County Board of Education to give them a right away so they could demolish the school and widen the road to a new real estate development.. The board hired a survey company to find out exactly what they owned.
"They saw the school as more than just a building there. They didn't want it torn down," Coates said. Although they did not have the money to do the many repairs that the building will need, they voted as a Board not to let the landowners have a twenty-foot right-of-way, Coates said.
The hope is to restore the building, then give it to the Mount Olive Baptist Church across the street that serves the neighborhood. "We've met with them, and they have open arms and are willing to take it. After it is redone and fixed up, they want to make it like a community building. Meals and birthday parties and things like that can be held there. Like a little community center," Coates said.
The building itself has been added to, but the plan is to save the original building. If money can be raised, an architect would be hired to come in and actually do the blue print of the building. There is some wood that would have to be replaced; some can be re-used. According to Coates, a person in the community has come forward and is willing to work with the Long Ridge group (people in the community) and write a grant to get money to redo the building.
The School Board is considering "stabilizing the building" with a new roof to prevent further deterioration while plans are developed to find funding for a renovation.
So far clean up work by volunteers has only been done outside the building. According to Craig Goforth, who is both a member of the school board and dean of student life at the college, students will not be recruited to work inside until the school board is satisfied that the building is safe.
According to a survey that was done in August 1965 by Madison County Schools, Anderson Elementary School was acquired in 1927. It had a floor area of 1,632 square feet and was located on 1.1 acres. It held grades 2-6, and was heated with coal fired heaters.
Coates added "That community is aging out, and we would like to do something for them. There's a lot of history and a lot of people that have ties back out through there that now live in far off places, yet they still come home. We want to keep the memory alive."
Anyone interested in making contributions in any way can contact the In-As-Much group at Mars Hill Baptist Church or Pastor Tommy Justus at 689-2911.
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