Booker T. Washington Elementary School - a segregated city school, located on Georgetown Street. The school opened in 1916, with an enrollment of 216, a teaching principal and six teachers. The basement had a lunchroom and two rooms (used for manual training). During the First World War, two adjacent lots were acquired for a playground and victory garden. The food raised in the garden was canned and used during the winter for lunch. The school was expanded in 1948 (kindergarten classrooms), 1953 (auditorium and two classrooms), 1963 (six classrooms) and 1969 (three portable classrooms). On November 21, 1947, a fire destroyed the school. The fire resulted when a student added coal to the stove used to heat the school.[i] The original building is now the Black & Williams Neighborhood Center.[ii]
Booker T. Washington Elementary School, Primary Center, 2010 <Ambrose>
Intermediate Center, 2010 <Ambrose>
In 1971, the school was relocated to a new facility at 475 Price Street. The school was renovated in 1999. In 1994, the school became the first public Montessori Magnet School, in Fayette County. In 2005, the school was renamed the Booker T. Washington Academy. The school consists of two buildings, the primary center at 707 Howard Street (serving Early Start, kindergarten, first and second grades) and the Intermediate Center at 475 Price Road (serving grades 3 to 5). The Intermediate Center was the former Bluegrass School, built in the 1970s.
[i] Lexington Herald-Leader, October 12, 1952, page 9 column 4-5.
[ii] A Brief Account of Fayette County’s Elementary Schools, 1969-70 and Fayette County School’s website.
