{"nrhp_refnum":"05000961","name":"Cleveland School","other_names":["Cleveland Middle School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"8968 Cleveland Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Clayton","county":"Johnston County","state":"NC","lat":35.568642200000056,"lon":-78.52847637099995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-09-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Cleveland School is a two-story brick school building on Cleveland Road about 9.5 miles southwest of Clayton, North Carolina, with a well house, a bathroom building and a 1955 gymnasium on the nominated grounds. The main block was designed by Charlotte architect Charles C. Hook and built in 1926-27, with flanking wings added in 1932 and 1938.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the school is locally significant for its association with public education and county school consolidation in the 1920s, when Johnston County built many brick schools to replace one-room buildings. It is also argued to be architecturally significant as a well-preserved brick consolidation school of the 1920s with a high degree of integrity, one of very few such schools remaining in the county.","narrative":"Cleveland School is a two-story brick school on Cleveland Road in rural Johnston County, North Carolina, about nine and a half miles southwest of Clayton. Charlotte architect Charles C. Hook designed the U-plan main block, which was completed in 1927 with a raised basement, five-to-one bond brick walls and concrete ornament in a Classical Revival manner. Two-story wings were added in 1932 and 1938. The school opened in the fall of 1926 as a consolidated school for Cleveland Township, and it also served as a community center. Its significance lies in its link to the 1920s drive to consolidate rural schools in Johnston County, which replaced one- and two-teacher schools with larger brick buildings. The building retains original hardwood floors, plaster walls, and an auditorium ceiling, and it is regarded as one of very few 1920s schools left in the county.","period_of_significance":"1926-1955","architect_builder":"Charles C. Hook (architect); J.P. Rogers (builder)","architectural_style":"Classical Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The school, bathroom and well house are being rehabilitated for adaptive reuse, and the document states the school served students until 1999.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:42.514966-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/8/7210/47721008/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/05000961.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47721008","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_School_(Clayton,_North_Carolina)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5132229"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/johnston-county/cleveland-school-05000961/"}