{"nrhp_refnum":"82004592","name":"Harrison School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"523 Harrison Ave., NW","address_restricted":false,"city":"Roanoke (Independent City)","county":"Roanoke (city and county)","state":"VA","lat":37.279426673000046,"lon":-79.94813312999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-09-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Education"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story brick public school at 523 Harrison Avenue NW in Roanoke, Virginia, built in 1916 with two-story wings added in 1922. It sits in one of Roanoke's oldest black neighborhoods.","why_significant":"The school symbolizes the efforts of Lucy Addison and other black educators to offer academic secondary instruction to black children in Southwest Virginia, when few black public high schools existed and prevailing theory favored industrial training. It served as a major center of black educational, social and cultural life in Roanoke. It is also one of only two surviving early 20th-century black school buildings in the city.","narrative":"Harrison School is a brick public school at 523 Harrison Avenue NW in Roanoke, built in 1916 from plans by school board clerk J.H. Page, with J.F. Barbour as contractor. Two lower, two-story wings were added in 1922. The main block has thirteen bays, a porch with three semicircular brick arches, and a modified Georgian design typical of schools of its era. The school opened in 1917 under principal Lucy Addison, who gradually extended its curriculum beyond the seventh grade to secondary level; before that, black students wanting further academic study had to travel to Petersburg. At a time when few black public high schools existed in Virginia, the school became a center of educational, social and cultural life in Roanoke's black community and educated many of its professional and civic leaders. It later served as an elementary school and then a day care center. When nominated it stood vacant, with plans for conversion to a community center and housing.","period_of_significance":"1916; 1922","architect_builder":"J.H. Page (architect); contractor J.F. Barbour","architectural_style":"Very modified Georgian-style format, typical public school design of the period","criteria":[],"status_note":"Vacant at the time of nomination and deteriorated; plans called for conversion to a black cultural center or community center with low-income apartments. Previously used as a day care center.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.600919-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/45/6833/41683345/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/82004592.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82004592/8e3774ab9a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82004592/8e3774ab9a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Patriarca12","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harrison_School_in_Roanoke,_Virginia.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Patriarca12</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harrison_School_in_Roanoke,_Virginia.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"13000647","name":"Roanoke Downtown Historic District (Boundary Increase)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/roanoke-downtown-historic-district-boundary-increase-13000647/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41683345","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_School_(Roanoke,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15693808"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/roanoke/harrison-school-82004592/"}