The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources.
The National Register of Historic Places lists many properties significant for education. We are pleased to promote the awareness of and appreciation for education related properties.
New Listings in the National Register
Photograph by Heritage Consulting Group, courtesy of Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office
Gladstone School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The school was designed by Pittsburgh architect O. M. Topp. The Gladstone School is significant as an example of a school of the Long Progressive Era, a reform movement that prioritized educational improvement. Improvements to school buildings during this era included specialized spaces for subject matter instruction, and increased community engagement. The Gladstone School, with its Collegiate Gothic exterior featuring large window openings for plentiful light and air, and interior of specialized learning spaces and wide corridors for ease of circulation. The school contains two, three-story buildings connected by a pedestrian bridge. The buildings include the c. 1914-1924 building (with a 1965 addition), and the 1926 Annex building. The buildings are connected by a metal-clad contributing 1926 pedestrian bridge at the second floor.
Photo by Carroll West & Savannah Grandey, courtesy of the Alabama State Historic Preservation Office
Previously Featured Properties:
The Macon County High School in Notasulga, Alabama,
is significant for its association with the Civil Rights Movement from 1963-1974. Events, students, and faculty at the school during its period of significance are directly associated with Lee v. Macon County Board of Education (1963-2006), the nationally significant landmark Civil Rights case that set a precedent for an enhanced role for the federal government in the desegregation of local schools through judicial relief, direct on-ground intervention, and compliance monitoring.
Sandy Island School, Sandy Island, South Carolina
Sandy Island is home to an African American community founded and settled by freed slaves during the Reconstruction era. It is located within the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, an area established by the U.S. Congress to recognize and help maintain the cultural traditions of the Gullah Geechee people.
West Virginia Schools for the Colored Deaf and Blind, Institute, West Virginia
Prior to 1926, West Virginia did not have a school for Black children who were deaf or blind. The purpose of the West Virginia Schools for the Colored Deaf and Blind was to train the students to be self-sustaining and to function in society with as little handicap as possible. Its educational curriculum consisted of learning sign language and other communication methods, subject instruction, and vocational training.
Blackwell School, Marfa, Texas
was the sole public education institution for the city's Mexican and Mexican American children from 1909-1965. Like many states across the south, segregated education was a standard in 19th and early 20th century society.
Nebraska School for the Deaf, Omaha, Nebraska
The history of the school follows the controversy of teaching methods for deaf students. NSD staked out a middle ground between manualism and oralism, advocating for the combined method—a form of deaf education that borrowed from both manulist and oralist methods.
Hampden County Training School, Agawam, Massachusetts
The former Hampden County Training School is a Classical Revival-style brick-and concrete reform school erected in 1916 to address the problem of truant and disorderly juvenile boys in public school districts.
Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing, Michigan
The Michigan School for the Blind represents a dedicated attempt by the State of Michigan to effectively educate the blind population in a segregated educational setting to better accommodate their need for training and instruction.
Quincy Grammar School in Boston, Massachusetts was completed in 1848 and became the first graded school in Boston with twelve "single-head" classrooms, setting a model for the city's educational reform movement of the 19th century. The history of the school is closely associated with the story of immigrants in Boston, with the majority of students born outside of the United States from its opening well into the 20th century.
The Forsythe Memorial School for Girls in Los Angeles, California was originally founded in 1884 and run by the Women’s Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church. The Mexican girls in attendance were primarily from the Southern California area. Described at the time as an “Americanization Plant” by the Home Missions Council, the girls came from different socioeconomic and religious backgrounds
The Children's Village--Illinois Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's School in Normal, Illinois
Begun in 1930 and completed in 1931, Children’s Village is a collection of eight identical Tudor Revival cottages and four matching play houses symmetrically arranged around a central promenade. The Children's Village was the third enclave of residential buildings designed on the site of the Illinois Soldiers' Orphans' Home, which was founded just after the Civil War to function as a refuge for military orphans. Children's Village was the third enclave of residential buildings designed on the site of the Illinois Soldiers' Orphans' Home, which was founded just after the Civil War to function as a refuge for military orphans. The home offered them a chance for a better life. It retained that name until 1931, when the Illinois Soldiers' Orphans' Home was renamed the Illinois Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's School (ISSCS). That remained its name until the institution closed in 1979.
Rollinsford Grade School, Rollinsford, New Hampshire
Constructed in 1936 to consolidate the town's two surviving one room schoolhouses and a four room village school, Rollinsford Grade School continues to serve as the town's only active school building. The school was constructed with funding from the Public Works Administration or PWA.
The gravestone is for the Cocker Spaniel Obo II who was imported from England in 1882 by James P. Willey. Obo II is credited as the father of the American Cocker Spaniel. Although the grave marker predates the construction of Rollinsford Grade School the stone, which sits on the southwestern edge of the playground, has been and continues to serve as a traditional gathering spot for school children during recess and after school, even when this practice was discouraged by the school faculty.
John A Finch School, Spokane, Washington
This school had its beginnings in the 1920s, when the city was making significant strides in expanding its elementary school opportunities, and was appropriately expanded several times as the population of the district it served increased. It continues to serve its originally intended purpose.
Forest Grove School No.5, Bettendorf, Iowa
Forest Grove School No.5 is of local significance as a one-room school as an example of rural schools in Iowa and of the national trends in education. This one-room schoolhouse served to educate students in grades kindergarten to 8th grade beginning in 1873, when the schoolhouse was built, to 1957, when it closed. It remains a cherished landmark of local heritage representing 84 years of education in Iowa.
Sweeney Automobile and Tractor School, Kansas City, Missouri
The Sweeney School, which opened in 1917, is the building most directly associated with E. J . Sweeney's contribution to the field of vocational education as the developer of a widely successful and innovative instructional program. In 1908, as founder and president of the Sweeney Automobile and Tractor School, he developed and instructed in the "Sweeney System," a wholly unique method of hands-on teaching that combined practical experience with quality instruction.
Catawba Rosenwald School, York County, South Carolina
The Catawba School was built in 1924-25 to serve the African-American community in southeastern York County, South Carolina. It was known as the Catawba School on official lists of Rosenwald schools, but is generally known as the Liberty Hill School locally because of its association with Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church nearby.
Beaver Meadow School, Windsor County, Vermont
The 1922 Beaver Meadow School on Chapel Hill Road in Norwich, Vermont, is an example of the One-Room School property type. After educational use ceased in 1946, the Beaver Meadow School became a community clubhouse and is notable and significant as a one-room rural school that retains its original classroom interior.
63rd Army Air Forces Contract Pilot School, Coffee County, Georgia
The 63rd Army Air Forces Contract Pilot School (Primary) is significant under National Register Criterion A at the state level in the area of military history because it represents the mobilization and training of American pilots before and during World War II and because it is the most intact of the eight pilot training schools built in Georgia and among the 75 built throughout the nation.
Photograph courtesy of the Georgia State Historic Preservation Office
63rd Army Air Forces Contract Pilot School, Coffee County, Georgia
The 63rd Army Air Forces Contract Pilot School (Primary) is significant under National Register Criterion A at the state level in the area of military history because it represents the mobilization and training of American pilots before and during World War II and because it is the most intact of the eight pilot training schools built in Georgia and among the 75 built throughout the nation.
John A Finch School, Spokane, Washington
This school had its beginnings in the 1920s, when the city was making significant strides in expanding its elementary school opportunities, and was appropriately expanded several times as the population of the district it served increased. It continues to serve its originally intended purpose.
Forest Grove School No.5, Bettendorf, Iowa
Forest Grove School No.5 is of local significance as a one-room school as an example of rural schools in Iowa and of the national trends in education. This one-room schoolhouse served to educate students in grades kindergarten to 8th grade beginning in 1873, when the schoolhouse was built, to 1957, when it closed. It remains a cherished landmark of local heritage representing 84 years of education in Iowa.
Sweeney Automobile and Tractor School, Kansas City, Missouri
The Sweeney School, which opened in 1917, is the building most directly associated with E. J . Sweeney's contribution to the field of vocational education as the developer of a widely successful and innovative instructional program. In 1908, as founder and president of the Sweeney Automobile and Tractor School, he developed and instructed in the "Sweeney System," a wholly unique method of hands-on teaching that combined practical experience with quality instruction.
Catawba Rosenwald School, York County, South Carolina
The Catawba School was built in 1924-25 to serve the African-American community in southeastern York County, South Carolina. It was known as the Catawba School on official lists of Rosenwald schools, but is generally known as the Liberty Hill School locally because of its association with Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church nearby.
Beaver Meadow School, Windsor County, VermontThe 1922 Beaver Meadow School on Chapel Hill Road in Norwich, Vermont, is an example of the One-Room School property type. After educational use ceased in 1946, the Beaver Meadow School became a community clubhouse and is notable and significant as a one-room rural school that retains its original classroom interior.
Photograph courtesy of Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office
Sydenstricker School, Fairfax County, Virginia
Sydenstricker School was the last one-room schoolhouse built prior to school consolidation in Fairfax County, and it was the last operating one-room schoolhouse in the county when it closed in 1939. The building consists of the main schoolroom, which measures 805 square feet in the main core, and a 65 square foot cloakroom, which was the original entrance into the building, now used as a kitchen.
Early 20th Century Schools in Puerto Rico MPS
The Spanish American War ended in 1898 resulting with Puerto Rico becoming a territory of the United States. By the time William Hunt took office as governor in 1900 there were just over 500 schoolrooms on the island, as inherited from the Spanish colonial government. The illiteracy rate was 79.6%. By 1930, Puerto Rico boasted 3,273 schools and, according to available records, only 41% of its population could not read or write.
One-Teacher Public Schools in Missouri MPS Cover
The majority of one-teacher schools in Missouri were located in rural areas of the state, outside the political boundaries of towns and cities. They existed in every county and serviced rural townships and small villages.
Will Rogers High School, Tulsa, Oklahoma: "The schools ain't what they used to be and never was." - Will Rogers. Will may have had a different opinion if he saw the Will Rogers High School. The school was built during the Great Depression through funding from a Public Works Administration grant, Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, now stands as one of the best examples of Art Deco high school architecture in the United States. Rogers' images, set in backgrounds of Oklahoma countryside and Tulsa's downtown, brought together local, state and national points of pride.
Model Farm, Guilford County, North Carolina
While not the typical “school” that comes to mind at this time of year, the Model Farm in High Point, Guilford County, North Carolina was an important educational facility in the post-Civil War south. The Model Farm was established in 1867 by the Baltimore Association of Friends to Advise and Assist Friends in Southern States, in order to improve farming techniques and crop yields for those Quakers pursuing agriculture in Guilford County.
Learn More: The National Park Service and Education
for a place to spend some time, have some fun and learn in the process, LearnNPS is for you.
Web Rangers: This is the National Park Service's on-line Junior Ranger program for kids of all ages. If you love your National Parks, Monuments and Historic Sites, this site is for you.
Teaching with Historic Places Lesson Plans: Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) uses properties listed in the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places to enliven history, social studies, geography, civics, and other subjects.
The National Park Service Archeology Program has great resources
- For teachers: Many disciplines such as mathematics, geography, cultural studies, and citizenship can be taught through anthropology. Archeological activities can promote social interaction alongside scientific investigation.
- For kids: describes what archeologists do and what archeology is about.
Last updated: September 23, 2021