{"nrhp_refnum":"86003451","name":"Cooper School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"S side of SR 2143, E of jct. with SR 2142","address_restricted":false,"city":"Mebane","county":"Alamance County","state":"NC","lat":35.99176476800005,"lon":-79.27160630199995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-12-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small one-room schoolhouse built about 1900 for black students on the grounds of the Mary's Grove Congregational Church, near Mebane in eastern Alamance County, North Carolina.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the school is one of two remaining early twentieth century one-room schools for black students in the county and the only surviving building of a small educational complex tied to the American Missionary Association. It reflects a tradition of private education for black students begun at Mary's Grove in 1883. It also embodies common features of rural one-room schools, such as a gable-front roof, plain exterior and separate entrances for boys and girls.","narrative":"Cooper School is a small one-story, three-bay weatherboard schoolhouse with a habitable attic, a tin gable-front roof and a fieldstone foundation. It was probably built about 1900 on land tied to Mary's Grove Congregational Church, which the American Missionary Association founded in 1883 in the Oaks community of Alamance County. It is one of two surviving early twentieth century one-room schools for black students in the county. The building has separate entrances for girls and boys, a common feature of rural schools. It served as a school until 1907, when the larger Oaks School was built nearby, and then became a parsonage for church ministers into the 1930s. Later, congregation members lived there. Local census figures cited in the nomination show black literacy in Thompson Township rising from 18 percent in 1880 to 72 percent by 1910, which the nomination links probably to the schools at Mary's Grove. The building now stands unoccupied and deteriorated.","period_of_significance":"1900-1999 (form checks \"1900-\"; specific date c. 1900)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Unoccupied and in a state of disrepair: the second floor sags, the tin roof is deteriorated, and vandals have broken most windows.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:51.209995-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/54/7188/47718854/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/86003451.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47718854","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_School_(Mebane,_North_Carolina)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17511078"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/alamance-county/cooper-school-86003451/"}