LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Between 1913 and 1932, Julius Rosenwald, the first CEO of Sears Roebuck in Chicago, and Booker T. Washington of the Tuskegee Institute built around 5,000 schools in the south for Black students as part of the Rosenwald Program.

Tucked in Louisville’s James Taylor neighborhood is one of those buildings that symbolized hope, the Jefferson Jacob School, which is named after a Black Harrods Creek farmer and community leader. 

“The Jacob School, from what I understand, is one of the few that’s left standing,” says Adolphus Thompkins, a Jacob School Heritage Incorporation board member. 

Thompkins discovered the school when he joined the Prospect masonic lodge in 1967.

That was 12 years after the desegregation of public schools, and many of the Rosenwald schools were abandoned or demolished.

“The lodge bought that building, which is the Jacob Elementary School. They bought it in 1957. That’s where we hold our lodge meetings,” says Thompkins. 

In 2014, the lodge members applied for grants to preserve the building’s history. 

“We formed a corporation called Jacob School Heritage Incorporated, which is different from the lodge and most of the lodge members are a member of that organization,” says Thompkins. 

Over the past ten years, the Jefferson Jacob School has received more than $500,000 in federal and state grants to rehabilitate its buildings. 

“As a Black person, we need something to identify ourselves, so to speak, and that’s one of the things in that area that identifies that we have a part in that community to be recognized,” says Thompkins. 

The first phase of the restoration project included the reconstruction of the exterior staircase, replacing doors, and restoring windows.  

The second phase is underway. 

Vinyl siding is being removed and the original wood is being repaired and replaced and then repainted. 

“My mission for the schools is for the community to recognize the fact that this is a historical building, want to keep it alive, keep it in existence,” says Thompkins. 

The school is a piece of history that tells the story of its neighborhood and the country. 

In 2012, the schoolhouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. 

The National Park Service awarded Louisville Metro Government a grant to nominate the James Taylor-Jacob School area for a listing as well.