{"nrhp_refnum":"04001584","name":"Washington Graded and High School","other_names":["Washington Elementary School","Washington Gifted and Talented Magnet School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1000 Fayetteville St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Raleigh","county":"Wake County","state":"NC","lat":35.76944253850007,"lon":-78.64380386621269,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-02-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Black","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story brick school on a raised basement at 1000 Fayetteville Street, just south of downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, built 1923-24 to designs by architect C. Gadsden Sayre, with a 1949 gymnasium and a circa 1942 track and culvert on a roughly sixteen-and-a-half-acre site.","why_significant":"It was Raleigh's first African American public high school and reflects how urban public schools for Black students developed in North Carolina, from Northern missionary origins in 1866 to a city-run school. It is also a restrained but well-executed example of Tudor Revival school architecture from the period of state-funded consolidated schools.","narrative":"Washington Graded and High School is a two-story, E-shaped brick school on a ridge above Fayetteville Street, south of downtown Raleigh. Designed by South Carolina architect C. Gadsden Sayre and completed in 1924, it has glazed terracotta and cast stone trim, a crenellated parapet, and a deeply recessed Tudor-arched entrance. The site also includes a 1949 gymnasium, a circa 1942 gravel track, and a brick-faced culvert. The school grew from a school organized in 1866 with Northern missionary support and later taken into the city system. It became Raleigh's first public high school for African American students. Parents lobbied for years for a new publicly funded building to replace the deteriorating older one. The school is considered locally significant for its role in education and Black ethnic heritage, and for its Tudor Revival design, which was more restrained than that of a white elementary school Sayre designed at the same time. Additions and a 2002 interior renovation have altered the building, but the school remains in use.","period_of_significance":"1923 - 1954","architect_builder":"Sayre, Christopher Gadsden, Architect; W.B. Barrow and Son, Builders; Berryman, George, Architect; Kenyon, Worth, General Contractor","architectural_style":"Tudor Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still used as a school; the interior was gutted in a 2002 renovation, and additions were built in 1996 and 2000.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:54.609139-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/49/7226/47722649/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/04001584.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04001584/5483b0e094-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04001584/5483b0e094-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Willthacheerleader18","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washington_Graded_and_High_School.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Willthacheerleader18</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washington_Graded_and_High_School.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722649","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Magnet_Elementary_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21262072"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/wake-county/washington-graded-and-high-school-04001584/"}