{"nrhp_refnum":"01000415","name":"Riley Hill School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"NC 2320, 0.2 mi. E of NC2318","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wendell","county":"Wake County","state":"NC","lat":35.85976611800004,"lon":-78.41619065299994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2001-04-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Black","Social History","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Riley Hill School is a one-story, H-plan brick Rosenwald school built in 1928 on the north side of SR 2320 near Wendell, Wake County, North Carolina. Two brick buildings from 1952, a cafeteria/classroom building and a gymnasium/auditorium, stand on the same 4.03-acre property.","why_significant":"The school is significant under Criterion A for education, Black ethnic heritage and social history, because it served as an educational and social center for a large rural African American community. It is significant under Criterion C as a relatively intact example of the Rosenwald Foundation's design for a six-teacher brick school. It is one of only five remaining Rosenwald schools in Wake County.","narrative":"Riley Hill School is a one-story brick school built in 1928 near Wendell in Wake County, North Carolina. Strickland Brothers of Zebulon built it for about $10,000, using a Rosenwald Foundation plan for a six-teacher school. Funding came from the Rosenwald Fund, local African American residents and the county school board. The H-shaped building has two gable-front classroom wings, a central section with a Doric-columned porch, and originally held an auditorium, office and \"industrial\" room. During the late 1920s through the 1940s it served the Riley Hill community, one of the largest rural Black communities in the county, as a place for plays, glee club performances, adult classes, vaccination clinics and farm meetings. Julius Rosenwald reportedly visited in 1928. A cafeteria and a gymnasium/auditorium were added in 1952. The school closed in 1970, later housed a Head Start program, and was bought by Riley Hill Baptist Church in 1991. It is now vacant. It is one of five surviving Rosenwald schools in the county.","period_of_significance":"1928-1951","architect_builder":"Strickland Brothers, Builders","architectural_style":"Late 19th & 20th Century Revivals: Colonial Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The form states the building is presently vacant; the church bought it in 1991 after the school closed in 1970.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:52.86846-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/51/7226/47722651/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/01000415.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722651","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riley_Hill_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7334208"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/wake-county/riley-hill-school-01000415/"}