By DEVIN R. NEGRETE
(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) – The historic Howard School is scheduled for demolition.
The heavy snow from February was too much for the 1888 structure as the roof collapsed, resulting in the city condemning the building.
The Howard School Preservation Association hoped to restore this former segregated school for black children into a cultural center.
“Our original plans were to restore and rehabilitate the old school building, making it a museum and visitor’s center,” said Morris Collins, the pastor of Jesus Saves Pentecostal Church and board member of HSPA.
Howard School, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is the second oldest remaining black school in Missouri. It is located next door to the church where Collins is the pastor, at 400 W. Culton St. in Old Town Warrensburg, just across from Blind Boone Park, which was once a segregated park for black people.
The Howard School board met May 17 to discuss the future of the building. That future points to demolition and the creation of a new facility on the old foundation.
The group wants to keep the foundation, stabilize and then restore it. However, the final project was not immediately available.
“There have been signoffs on the disconnections of the phone and electrical circuits to allow a demolition permit,” said Rowland Kitchen, a building official for the city of Warrensburg.
Kitchen said the city has agreed to waive the demolition permit fees.
The association members agreed to salvage what they can from the building and donate those materials to the Johnson County Historical Society.
“They have light fixtures from the building, but so far there’s nothing they will be able to use for the project,” said Lisa Irle, curator for the Historical Society.
Collins said the rebuilding plans include an outdoor playground and memorabilia from the Howard School era.
“The Howard School is one of the oldest remaining buildings yet standing from the era of African American schools built following the Civil War,” Collins said.
The school served the black community until it closed in 1955 when school segregation ended.
“It is also significant to note the Howard School is one of the few Missouri schools built during that time which had documentation linking its early history to each of three principal agencies responsible for the development of black schools in Missouri following the Civil War: The American Missionary Society, the Freedmen’s Bureau, and the Missouri Department of Education,” Collins said.
The Howard School Preservation Association meets at Jesus Saves Pentecostal Church next to the Howard School property at 7 p.m. on the last Monday of each month.