{"nrhp_refnum":"08000397","name":"Martin Elementary School","other_names":["Walter Martin Elementary School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"608 Church St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bronwood","county":"Terrell County","state":"GA","lat":31.829098819000023,"lon":-84.35886590599995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2008-05-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Education","Black","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story, L-shaped, 13-room brick school building at 608 Church Street in Bronwood, Terrell County, Georgia, built in 1956 as a segregated school for African-American children. It was designed by architect Edward Vason Jones and built by the S. J. Curry Company of Albany.","why_significant":"It is an intact local example of International-style architecture, designed by an architect better known for Neo-Classical work. It is also an intact mid-20th-century segregated school, built as part of Terrell County's effort to resist integration. The school served Bronwood's Black community until 1970 and was a community focal point.","narrative":"Martin Elementary School in Bronwood, Georgia, is a one-story, L-shaped brick schoolhouse completed in 1956 for African-American children in the town and surrounding area. Architect Edward Vason Jones of Albany, mostly known for Neo-Classical work, designed it in the International style, with a flat roof, minimal ornamentation and long walls of daylight windows. A 173-foot central hallway connects seven classrooms, a library, offices, storage rooms and a combined cafeteria and auditorium. The school was built as part of the Terrell County school board's building program, which aimed to delay desegregation by providing modern Black schools after the Brown decision. It taught kindergarten through eighth grade, held the town's only library, and served as a gathering place until the county integrated its schools in 1970. More than 1,000 children attended. Since then the building has been vacant apart from a brief use as a nightclub, and its floor plan remains intact.","period_of_significance":"1956","architect_builder":"Jones, Edward Vason (architect); Curry, S.J., Company (builders)","architectural_style":"Modern Movement: International Style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The building is vacant. It was briefly used as a nightclub in the late 1980s and has otherwise been vacant since 1970; the owners hope to restore it as a community center.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:43.254103-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/08000397.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93209598","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/terrell-county/martin-elementary-school-08000397/"}