BERLIN – A new sign is expected to bring attention to the town’s historic Germantown School.
The school, one of those built by the Rosenwald Foundation in 1922, is located on Trappe Road in Berlin. Thanks to funding from the Lower Eastern Shore Heritage Council, a sign now provides passersby with information on the historic structure.
“It’s a great enhancement to our building,” said Barbara Purnell of the Germantown School Community Heritage Center. “Before we didn’t have any signs to let people know what we were.”
Purnell was part of the immense 12-year effort to restore the ancient two-room school, which was gutted and used as a garage after the board of education stopped using it as an educational facility in the 1960s. An effort has been made nationwide to save Rosenwald schools — which were constructed in the early 20th century to improve the quality of public education for African Americans throughout the south — because few remain. While there were once 11 in Worcester County, Purnell says the Germantown School is the only one still standing.
After more than a decade of fundraising, its restoration was completed in 2013. Since then, the school has been available to the community for various causes. Cultural programs are held there during Black History Month while the building is available for community meetings and private functions throughout the year.
“It’s not in use as a school anymore but it’s still a gathering place,” Purnell said.
The former two-story school received a major overhaul through a restoration effort completed in 2013.
Most recently, the center hosted a gospel dinner cabaret. The event, a fundraiser for the Germantown School Community Heritage Center, sold out.
“It was a beautiful gathering,” Purnell said.
She said the center hosts a handful of such events each year, the next of which will be a fall bazaar, to raise money for operations.
“We have to have money on hand for when things go bad,” she said.
She says there are a couple of cracked windows that need to be repaired in addition to regular upkeep expenses. Purnell would also like to see the center purchase some office equipment.
Though the center is available for the community to use, it is not open to the public on a regular basis. That, Purnell says, is only because there aren’t enough volunteers to staff it. She says the center needs more people, particularly young people, willing to donate their time.
“We want this building to continue after we fade out,” she said. “It’s going to take young people.”
She encourages anyone interesting in volunteering to contact her at 410-641-0638.
