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Rock Elementary School
"The Stanley Institute"
901 Bayley Road
Cambridge, Maryland
Dorchester County
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| Rock Elementary School, a one-room, one-story, gable-front
schoolhouse, is located at the southeast corner of the intersection
of Bayly Road and Church Creek Road, approximately two miles
from Cambridge, in Dorchester County. |
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The school faces the Rock Methodist Church (built in 1875)
and Cemetery off Bayly Road. |
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| The date of construction for this building is
unknown. In 1867 a building known as Rock School was moved to
the present location
from a site near Church Creek. The current building could be
the original Rock School or it could be an 1867 construction
made with the dismantled and reused parts of the Rock School.
The building is referred to as Rock Elementary or as the Stanley
Institute in honor of the first president of the school board,
Ezekrial Stanley. (National Register Nomination) Rock Elementary
School is significant for the role it played in the education
of the
African-American
children
of Cambridge from the mid-nineteenth century until it closed
on July 15, 1966. |
| Rock Elementary measures approximately
38 feet deep by 18 feet wide, including a vestibule which
measures
8 feet
by 13 feet. The schoolhouse rests on brick piers and the
gable roof is covered with wood shingles. The exterior design
of the building is simple, with decorative features restricted
to the boxed cornices with returns and unornamented board
window surrounds. The southwest (front) elevation of the
vestibule contains a door with four horizontal panels. Above
the vestibule roof there is a small opening measuring
2 feet by
1 feet 7 inches, which is currently boarded up, but leads
into the attic. |
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| The northwest and southeast
(side) elevations of the main block each contain three
six-over-six-light
double-hung sash windows. The northeast (rear) elevation
contains one opening, a z-pattern batten door. |
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| A double privy and a tool shed stood near the end of the building,
but have since been demolished. The side elevations of the vestibule
each contain one four-over-four-light double-hung sash window. |
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Three of the interior walls of the vestibule are covered
with horizontal tongue and groove boards. The north wall
of the vestibule is covered with horizontal wainscoting.
Today, all of the vestibule walls are painted white and contain
photographs and articles pertaining to the history of Rock
School/Stanley Institute. A door in the northeast wall of
the vestibule opens into the large classroom. |
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| The classroom, or main block, measures 29
feet deep by 17 feet wide. The walls contain wainscoting
from the floor to the bottom of the window sills. Above the
wainscoting the walls are painted white. In addition to the
windows the southeast wall contains a blackboard measuring
approximately 7 feet wide. The northeast wall contains a
blackboard, chimney stack, and a door to the exterior. |
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In the west corner of the classroom there
is a built-in cupboard that sits above the wainscoting. |
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| Aside from the changes when the building
may have been relocated the schoolhouse appears to have been
altered at some other point in time. There is evidence of
an addition to the rear or northeast elevation of the building.
The most obvious evidence is the double brick piers visible
on the side elevations. Underneath the building there is
clear differentiation between the sill for the Period I classroom
and the Period II addition. There is also a slight bulge
in the wall of the south elevation, which indicates a seam
where the two sections are joined |
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| Evidence of the day to day activities in the buildings
is still present. |
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The interior space of the classroom contains “Eclipse” wooden
student desks and an iron stove made by the Orr Painter and
Company in Reading, Pennsylvania. |
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| The teacher’s desk, located in front of the chimney
stack, faces the children’s desks. The classroom and
vestibule contain various items that speak to its previous
use as a school. |
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| Compared to the other three schools in the study, Rock
differed very little from their layout and appearance. Much
like Worton Point, the school had symmetrically placed narrow
windows, plain trim, and a sink. Rock School’s boxed
cornices provide the building with the only distinguishing
characteristic from Galesville, Hosanna, and Worton Point. |
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| The preservation of Rock School is attributed to a dedicated
group of community residents and former students. Currently the
building is frozen in time, as a reminder of what schools were
like back in the years between the Civil War and the beginning
of the Civil Rights Movement. During the second half of the twentieth
century, the building served as a community center, church, and
Sunday school room, but future plans are to also make the building
a museum. Recently, local individuals received a permit to put
the coal house back up and are waiting for bids from contractors.
It is through this reuse and attention of the community that
the building stands today. |
| Contact Person: Herschel Johnson (410) 228-6657 |
| National Register of Historic Places: Stanley Institute. January
10,1975. Prepared by J. Richard Rivoire and William H. Kirk |
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