Timeline of Washington

In 1866, Brewer came to Raleigh for the AMA to help educate black people that have been freed from slavery. After a little while, he reported to the AMA that about half of the city’s residents were African American. There were 5 African American schools, they were made by Northern aid Organizations. They all gave classes to most of the African American children. Washington School was one of the schools, it held all its classes in an old church building. This school started in the autumn of 1866. Brewer’s sister (Adele Brewer) taught classes as a African American teacher for the AMA, possessing the name of Washington School. The Brewers also took white children, both white and black students attended classes together and sometimes were in separate classrooms. But the bad thing was that the African Americans were not comfortable and the whites were not comfortable either.

Adele continue to teach blacks in some rented space while Fisk worked very hard to get a dedicated school building constructed. The AMA bought 6 acres of land between McDowell and Manly Streets. With financial help from the Raleigh Education Association and some labor from some students and parents. Adele continue to teach blacks in some rented space while Fisk worked very hard to get a dedicated school building constructed. The city of Raleigh added Washington School to the public school system in the early 1880’s. It is then a local and public elementary school.

Raleigh school-age population was growing too large for the school system. The 1881 City Directory reported that both races did not have “ proper buildings”. They stated their opinion that “ as public spirit becomes improves, we hope that the city will build 2 large and important structures. 1 structure for each race. With rooms for 2000 children. Shaw University and Saint Augustine's tried to teach the American students who needed high school classes. But both schools realized that they couldn't keep the tuition stabilized so they stopped giving high school classes to African Americans.

By the 1910’s, parents of Washington students began lobbying for a new public funded school building to replace the 19th century structure. In April 1922, some of the voters expressed their favor for their children’s welfare by giving a million dollar bond to build new schools. Five schools ( Including Washington) were going to be replaced with fireproof buildings. The new Washington school had more rooms that the other school did not have. Such as a cafeteria, and labs for biology, physics, and chemistry. All these rooms were not in the old school.

Washington was a good building but it was second rate when it was compared to the new white schools in the city. The PTA purchased about 500 books and made donations to the business department. Students used textbooks discarded by white high schools. Overcrowding occurred pretty much immediately after the new building was made. There are 30 classes rooms in Washington and 14 of them were for the 465 high school students which had about 33 students per classrooms in 1926-1927. Washington built a 14th room addition in 1927 to more effectively divide the high and elementary sections. By the 1939-1940 school year 717 high school students attended classes at Washington plus all the elementary students. The faculty there included 27 black high school teachers and 21 black elementary school teachers.

The school board told the public that they would make a African American high school before 1947. This did not happen until 1950’s. Then the school board made a new school in 1953 just for African American. In 1971, Washington was a racially integrated 6th grade center. It was the largest 6th grade center in that year . Officials anticipated that 70% of the 660 students from West Raleigh. The school and system came together in 1976 and Washington became part of WCPSS or Wake County Public School System.

In 1978, The Board of Education had a abandonment threat. They felt that the needed renovations would be too expensive so they reorganized the school. During 1982, a magnet elementary school was made. It had a new name to reflect its change: Washington Gifted and Talented Magnet Elementary School. In 1996 and 2000, two major parts were made on the north and west wings, and in 2002, the interior had major construction. In the early 21st century, Washington’s current population is about 600, a little more than half its population when it was a high school. In the early part of the twentieth century, students and teachers got a lot of awards, continuing a tradition that had started way back in the 1940s.

Source: National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for Washington Graded & HS, 2005