J.C. Price High School makes national register

Price High School

1948 J.C. Price High bricklaying class

J.C. Price, 1854-1893

1948 J.C. Price High band

eg Brown didn't know what he was getting into when he volunteered to take photographs of the 1931 J.C. Price High School, his alma mater.

But architectural historian Davyd Foard Hood needed comprehensive documentation. He instructed Brown to take pictures of every detail, down to bricks, floor tiles and commodes.

Close to 350 photographs later, Brown feels pride in being part of a major accomplishment:

J.C. Price High School is now on the U.S. Department of Interior's National Register of Historic Places.

In hindsight, it probably was a slam dunk.

Price High School, located at 1300 W. Bank St., was the only public school building in Salisbury erected solely for use as a high school by black students.

It will forever be linked to Joseph Charles Price, the Livingstone College president who was a great speaker, educator and civil rights leader in the last half of the 19th century, and L.H. Hall, the school's first principal and the pioneer of black high school education in Salisbury.

Price High also has important connections to the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which supported black school construction throughout the state and country from the 1910s to 1932, the year the high school was dedicated.

Price High arguably is the last school in North Carolina which received a Rosenwald grant.

The school, which operated from 1932 through the end of the 1968-69 year, was the focus of enormous pride in Salisbury's black community. It holds significance in areas of education, architecture, ethnic heritage and social history.

And those are pretty much the words Hood used in his 50-page nomination, which was approved in Washington, D.C., in April, in plenty of time for this weekend's J.C. Price High School National Alumni Association Reunion. (See related story.)

In addition, Rowan Public Library will have an exhibit of Price High School photographs, "Cherishing the Black and Red," which begins Friday at the main library on West Fisher Street.

The exhibit title comes from the ending line of Price's school song, which said, "Cherish the black and red," the school colors.

Betty Dan Spencer put the exhibit together with help from Gretchen Witt and the Edith Clark History Room and scrapbooks assembled by Virginia Pharr Wilson, historian for the alumni association.

The National Register approval is big news for Eleanor Qadirah, a 1960 Price High graduate and alumni representative for the Preservation of Price High School Project.

Qadirah brought in a senior restoration specialist from the State Historic Preservation Office in November 2002 to tour the high school property.

The state specialist thought the building could qualify then, but it wasn't until Hood was commissioned years later that things got serious. Qadirah, Spencer, Brown and Mary Jane Fowler helped in the review of Hood's final draft late last year.

The Price National Alumni Association raised funds for the nomination process that were matched by Salisbury philanthropists Ed and Susan Norvell. Historic Salisbury Foundation recommended Hood, a historian from Vale, who was successful in other Salisbury nominations.

"I said, 'We hope your touch is still good,'" Qadirah says, recalling her first meeting with Hood.

Now that Price High School in on the National Register, Qadirah says fundraising for the building will continue through the alumni association's foundation, whose contributions also go toward scholarships.

"People are still wanting to be involved," Qadirah says. "... The idea is, it's (also) a preservation fund."

The National Register approval is important, agrees Brown, Price High Class of 1962.

"It makes it easier for us to raise money to do what we need to do," he says, noting that while the old school buildings are structurally sound and surprisingly intact, there's still a lot of work needing to be done, "and I don't know how we're going to do it in these economic times."Hood's research shows that the black community was desperate for a high school through much of the 1920s and into the early 1930s. The Dixonville and Monroe Street schools for black students were overcrowded, forcing many students to attend in half-day shifts.

For example, in the mid to late 1920s, black student enrollment was at 928, but the city provided only 20 classrooms between the two schools for all grades. (The J.C. Price High name was first used at the Monroe Street School from 1923-31, although it included grades 1 through 11.)

School board minutes from October 1925 reported "alarming conditions" at Salisbury's "colored schools," and things became so intolerable in the black community that a delegation went to the school board in October 1929 demanding a new school.

The State Literary Fund eventually supplied a $30,000 loan, and the Rosenwald Fund provided a $5,300 grant, the largest in North Carolina during the 1931-32 school year. The Rosenwald Fund also contributed $600 for the library and $300 for equipment.

According to Hood's research, the school cost $38,689, plus an additional $3,719 for its original 6-acre lot, bought from the Partee family.

Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears Roebuck & Co., incorporated his fund in 1917 to help with black school construction, but his help predated that incorporation.

Over its life, the fund supported the construction of 5,357 schools, shops and "teacherages" in the United States, including 813 in North Carolina — the most of any state.

Rosenwald died the same day — Jan. 6, 1932 — that the Salisbury Post celebrated completion of Price High School with a front-page story. Rosenwald's fund was discontinued after his death.

On inspecting the new Price High Jan. 5, 1932, John J. Blair, state director of school planning, described it as "very beautiful indeed."

"In fact," he said, "it is one of the best I know of in the South."

The school was dedicated on the rainy night of Feb. 15, 1932, and more than 300 students started school there the next day. The rain had made "new roadways leading to the school almost impassable for blocks away," the newspaper reported.

Salisbury Mayor B.V. Hedrick told the large crowd gathered, "You may rest assured that the city fathers will build you a good street into this place at once."

Price High School is essentially four buildings. The original design — amazingly, the school was built in just three months at the end of 1931 — was based loosely on one of the Rosenwald model plans but was larger at 14 rooms.

Brown says the central hall — the spine through the school — was long enough and wide enough to accommodate proms before a gymnasium was added.

Architects Barbee and Yoe are credited with the original design. Jack W. Long of Durham was the contractor. Additions came in 1951 with the Hall gymnasium and shop building and in 1956-57 with the Senior High Classroom wing and a cafeteria.

The school held grades seven through 12 for most of its history.

From the outside, the buildings have hardly changed and much is intact inside with oak flooring, molding and about half of its original metal lockers. Hood says "important original fabric remains in place in nearly every space," down to "Sibley" commodes, original chalkboards and bookcases, wood paneling, wainscoting and ceramic tile floors.

The 586-seat auditorium retains the greatest degree of integrity, Hood says, with its plan, finishes and furnishings all intact.

The property is city-owned, and parts of the old school are still used by the Salisbury-Rowan Community Action Agency and Head Start.