The Smith School House Historic Structure Report, Boston African American Historic Site
Yocum BA. 1998. The Smith School House Historic Structure Report, Boston African American Historic Site. Historic Structure Report. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Boston, Massachusetts
This report contains the history of the Smith School and its importance in the history of Boston public education. The Smith School House was built in 1834-35 by the City of Boston, which still owned it at the time of publication. It was the first school building built by the city for the exclusive use of children of African descent. It was seen by the black community to symbolize unequal educational rights and unequal privileges, who protested by founding the "Equal School Association," circulating and signing petitions, boycotting the Smith School, and bringing a law suit against the city. A new state law opened public schools to all children regardless of race or religion in 1855. It was later used as a meeting place for black veterans of the Civil War. Architectural research of the schoolhouse began in January 1990. Research was conducted on the written history of the building and the building itself by consulting primary and secondary sources and using mortar analysis, paint analysis, and molding profile comparisons. Since the completion of a draft Historic Structure Report, the NPS began a project to restore and rehabilitate the African Meeting House, undertake the restoration and adaptive reuse of the Smith School House, and link the two structures with a renovated courtyard.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Yocum, Barbara
- Date of Issue
- 1998
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- BOAF , HIST , NER
- Keywords
- Abiel Smith, African American History, Beacon Hill, Boston, Cultural Resources, education, ehistory, Equal School Association, History, Lewis Hayden, school, schoolhouse, segregation, Smith School, Wendell Phillips, William C. Nell, William Lloyd Garrison
- Subjects
- CRIS-HS: 040280: Abiel Smith School