Educational DevelopmentAlthough educational development within the expansion area has been of secondary importance due to the fact the city's major school facilities for white children were located just northeast of the area's boundary, schools have nonetheless been important in the area's history. The earliest reference of a school within the expansion area was a school for whites called the "Free School Lot" that was mentioned in an 1862 deed from Daniel Richardson to Robert A. Sawyer for the lot "near Elizabeth City" that is now at 600 McPherson Street (#310) (Deed Book 9, p. 374). In 1869 there is reference to a "Red School House" in the same vicinity whlch was to be loaned to the "Colored people for School purposes" (Ballou 1966, 1). Whether the red school was the same as the building mentioned in 1862 is unknown. Isaac Tillett (1833-1907), who erected a residence at 400 West Church Street (ECHD) ca. 1860, operated a private school for boys on East Church Street after the Civil War. The school moved to 410 West Church Street (#227) in the 1890s and continued in operation until 1907 (Sanborn Map 1902, 1908). Two schools opened in the expansion area during the early twentieth century. The organizers of the Albemarle High School, a private school for white children in the early years of the century, erected a two-story frame building about 1904 at the southwest corner of Harney and Cedar Street, now the site of the Pasquotank County Health Department (#32). In 1907 the property was sold to the city's newly formed public School Board, and the old Albemarle High School building was occupied by a public elementary school for whites from 1907 until ca. 1933 (Incorporation Book A, p. 397; Deed Book 27, p. 418; Deed Book 31, 624: Sanborn Map 1908, 1914, 1923, 1931}. As already noted, the local Roman Catholic parish incorporated a parochial school in their complex (#145) developed between 1927 and 1931. The St. Elizabeth Church and School served the city's young but growing catholic population and as was typical durlng the post World War II baby boom, an annex was added to the school during the 1950s. This expansion, however, was premature, for the school closed during the 1960s, ending any formal educational presence wlthin the expansion area. The teachers at the school were members of the Sisters of St. Dominic; they occupied the nearby Edwin F. Aydlett, Jr., House (#135) from ca. 1936 until the school was closed (The Independent, October 21, 1927; Sanborn Map 1931, Miller 1960-61, p. 379; Miller 1970, p. 275). |