BERLIN – A local advisory group is seeking photos, newspaper clippings and any other memorabilia tied to the Flower Street School.
Members of the Berlin Community Center Advisory Board are hoping area residents will share their relics from the African American school that in the first part of the 20th century educated so many local children. The plea for mementos of the school comes as the town prepares to build a community center on the site where the institution once stood.
“We’ve got a short period of time we can capture that history,” Mayor Zack Tyndall said.
The advisory board in a meeting last week reviewed a handful of newspaper clippings provided by Tyndall that mentioned the Flower Street School. He said little information related to the school was available in the archives he’d searched.
Councilman Dean Burrell, who is also a member of the advisory board, said local artist Patrick Henry had plenty of photos and information about the school. Henry, whose advocacy efforts helped spur the most recent push for a community center, attended the school as a child and both of his parents had ties to the property.
Worcester County Commissioner Diana Purnell added that Dr. Clara Small also had information, as did former teacher Josephine Anderson. She pointed out that the community had done a lot to save the history of the nearby Germantown School and felt that there would be plenty of support for chronicling the history of Flower Street School.
Tyndall encouraged board members to reach out to whoever they could think of so that the town could preserve the history of the site as it moved closer to redevelopment. He said that he also hoped board members could arrange interviews with community members who had memories of the school so those could be recorded.
Board member DJ Lockwood agreed that it was important to collect information and ensure people understood the historical value of the property that will one day house a community center. He said there was a chance that once are residents heard the town was looking for memories of the school the board would be inundated with information.
“It’ll start to get interesting once we start asking around,” he said.
