This historic African-American schoolhouse was built in Manchester in 1928 with funds from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. It was a five-classroom design and was the only Rosenwald school in the county until the construction of the Eleanor Roosevelt School in nearby Warm Springs in 1936. It’s an exceptionally nice example of a Rosenwald, featuring a brick veneer, ornamental quoins at the corners, a fanlight above the entrance (now obscured), a circular window on the front gable, and a cupola (since removed). On one of his many visits to the area, future President Franklin D. Roosevelt noted his admiration for the Manchester school. He said, “When I was at Warm Springs in 1927-28, I was out riding with two members of our local school board. As we passed a very attractive school a few miles from Warm Springs I remarked that it was a very beautiful building.” The chairman of the board said “That’s a Rosenwald Negro School.” The other member said, “It puts our Warm Springs white school to shame.”

The Manchester Rosenwald soon became a county training school and enrollment increased rapidly. To accommodate this growth, a wooden annex was constructed next door. An exact date for the annex is unknown, but it was built in the 1930s. After serving the community until desegregation of Meriwether County schools, the Meriwether County Training School was abandoned for some time. From the 1980s until the early 2000s, it served the local Head Start program and now sits empty once again. I spoke with a lady whose husband attended the school and she was hopeful that it will be preserved for future generations.