|
 |
Hosanna School
2424 Castleton Road
Darlington, Maryland
Harford County
|
 |
|
|
| Located at the junction of Castleton Road and Maryland Route
263 in the town of Darlington, Harford County, the Hosanna School
is a one-and-a-half story, simple gable-front frame building.
Originally, the Berkley School stood two stories high and served
the educational needs of the African-American community in the
local vicinity. In the late 1950s, Hurricane Hazel destroyed
the upper floor of the building and the remaining portion was
sealed with a new roof. Situated amidst trees and green fields
along a country road, the school faces south towards Hosanna
Church across the road. The school measures 42 feet deep by 26
feet wide, and contains a vestibule measuring 11 feet by 26 feet
and a classroom measuring 30 feet by 26 feet. Above the fieldstone
foundation, horizontal board siding covers the exterior wall,
while corrugated metal finishes the roof. |
The school was established in 1867-1868, making
it the first public African-American school in the county. While
the Freedmen’s
Bureau was largely responsible for the construction of black
schools in the South, donating over $6 million by 1870 for this
endeavor, African-Americans living above the Mason-Dixon Line
largely shouldered the task of developing these intellectual
institutions for their own people.(Vaughn 1974, 3) In the case
of Hosanna, it was a cooperative effort between the Freedmen’s
Bureau and the black community in Harford County that helped
create
the school. The property on which the school stands once belonged
to the black Paca family. While it is unclear if the Pacas sold
or donated the land, the school’s trustees acquired one-quarter
acre for the purpose of creating an institution to teach black
children. The Freedmen’s Bureau funded the project, but
it was the labor of the black community, using recycled lumber,
that actually built the school.
The building was primarily used as a school, but it also served
as a church. The school occupied both floors, but the upper floor
also housed the Hosanna Church. The school closed its doors in
1946, but two years later the Hosanna Community House, Inc.,
was created to support a new use for the building, a black community
center.
The Hosanna School was placed on the National Register for Historic Places in
1991. |
 |
The southwest (front) elevation of the
building contains a single board and batten door, with a
three-light transom
window above and concrete steps below. |
|
| Removal of the second floor in the 1950s altered the fenestration
of the front elevation by eliminating the two original six-over-six-light
double-hung sash windows on the second floor. Fenestration on
the two side elevations was symmetrical between the first and
second floor, with four six-over-six-light double-hung sash windows
on the southeast elevation and three on the northwest elevation.
On both elevations, only the first floor windows survive today. |
| The windows are surrounded by green shutters that rest
on hinges and are held open by very ornate shutter dogs |
 |
|
 |
| The interior plan remains largely
intact on the first floor. Directly in front of the schoolroom
is a vestibule, which
has one six-over-six-light double-hung sash window to provide
light into this space. Within the vestibule is an enclosed
stairbox, with a board and batten door with a wooden doorknob.
The stairs originally led to the second-floor classroom,
but now access an attic storage area. |
 |
|
 |
Eleven coat hooks in the vestibule provided students a
space to hang their personal items. |
|
| The walls of the classroom have wainscoting with a chair rail
finishing approximately 2 feet above the floor. Originally plastered,
the
interior walls
are now covered with wallboard above the chair rail, which occurred
during the 1994 refurbishment of the school. |
| Three eight inch by eight inch square posts run in a line
through the center of the classroom, aligned with the window
openings. |
 |
|
| There is no remaining evidence of chimneystacks, but period
images show a stack between the first and second window (from
front) on the southeast elevation and oral histories testify
that the school was heated by a wood/coal burning pot-bellied
stove. (Beims and Tolbert 2003, 52.) |
 |
In the back of the schoolroom, there is
a teaching stage raised six inches off the floor. |
|
| Original blackboards cover the entire northeast wall. The
slate planks lean on a rail and are held in place by molding. |
 |
|
| Compared to the other three schools in this
study, Hosanna was a much larger building for a majority of its
existence; after
the 1950s, it looked very similar to the layout at both Rock
Elementary and Worton Point. Like Rock Elementary and Worton
Point, a vestibule was found in the front entry, where personal
effects could be
stored out of the way of the large classroom. The teachers at
Hosanna had a teaching stage, unlike the other schools, which
allowed for both the teacher and the students to have their own
distinct space within the building. Heating Hosanna required
two chimney stacks, found on the side walls, while the other
three schools had chimney stacks on their back wall. Fenestration
at Hosanna was quite similar to the other three schools, as was
the symmetrically placed windows and door. The lack of ornamentation,
consistent at all three schools, was also the case at Hosanna,
with one exception: shutter dogs. |
| As early as 1983, local concerned citizens began
efforts to restore the Hosanna School. Local members of the community
began
to seek financial assistance to preserve and restore the school,
which reopened to the public in 1994. In 2000, funds were approved
to rebuild the second floor of the school, which is the next
major step is restoration in Hosanna. Initial efforts focused
on preserving the first floor of the building, first by securing
a state bond issue which allocated the school with $25,000 to
begin the second step, restoration. Current efforts are directed
towards adding a second floor and bring the Hosanna School to
its original configuration. Smith Architects of Baltimore have
been retained to begin efforts, once MHT has approved on the
new architectural plan. A MHT grant funded the publication of
A Journey Through Berkley, Maryland, whose proceeds
are used to help with restoration cost, but continual efforts
are made
to raise money to fund their cause. The Hosanna School has no
paid staff, but has a reliable and devoted volunteer base that
is adamant about saving this local legacy. |
| Contact Person: Christine Tolbert (410) 272-0697 |
| Beims, Constance R. and Christine P. Tolbert, A Journey
Through Berkley, Maryland: A Tapestry of Black and White Lives
Woven
Together Over 200 Years at a Rural Crossroads. Baltimore:
Gateway Press, 2003.
Vaughn, William Preston. Schools for All: The Blacks
and Public Education in the South, 1865-1877. Lexington:
University of
Kentucky Press, 1974.
|
|
|
