Friends of Cherry Grove Schoolhouse

The Cherry Grove Schoolhouse has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Cherry Grove Schoolhouse is a rare surviving example of an early 20th century rural African American school building in Georgia. The building was constructed circa 1910 on the grounds of the Cherry Grove Baptist Church (founded 1875) as a part of the 175 th school district for the rural farming children o

f Danburg and Sandtown. It is a one-room wood-frame schoolhouse of approximately 465 square feet. It is situated off of Danburg Road just south of the church's cemetery and faces the church building, separated by the church's parking lot. According to church lore, the building sits in its original location. The schoolhouse is one of 15 extant pre-Rosenwald African-American schoolhouses built on church grounds within the state of Georgia. Compared to the rest of the 15 remaining schoolhouses, this schoolhouse is in pretty good condition; however, the Cherry Grove Schoolhouse is in dire need of repair. The building was used to teach primary school through the seventh grade. It is unclear when the building was no longer used as a school house; however, the last building inspection conducted by the superintendent was done in 1940. The school may have closed for classes shortly after that. Not much is known about its function as a schoolhouse before the integration of schools in the 1960s. The building is currently used by the church for storage. The structure has been determined eligible for the National Register under Criterion A for significance in the areas of Ethnic Heritage-Black and Education, and Criterion C for significance in the area of Architecture.