Former students remember 85-year-old Fredrick Douglass Elementary School amid rebuild

After 85 years, Fredrick Douglass Elementary School in Elm City is getting a new building.

The original school, built in 1939, was an elementary, middle, and high school for only Black students.

Wilson County Commissioners approved $1.77 million to demolish and rebuild a new school in January. Crews demolished the old building on February 12, 2024.

It's emotional for Alice Barnes Freeman to revisit the site and not see the school where she spent 12 years of her education.

"I graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in 1964," she said.

Today, it's just a plot of land waiting for a new building to come up in its place.

Freeman said she was heartbroken after learning the county agreed to demolish the school.

"There was sadness. There was anger. All of those emotions [took place] until you stop and you realize that like the phoenix from the ashes can come new birth, and that seems to be what we will hopefully experience," Freeman said.

Thousands of students went to school here. Freeman will tell you that everyone wanted to go to Fredrick Douglass.

"There was so much warmth that camaraderie; that's just what Frederick Douglass was," she said.

The school put Elm City on the map by winning multiple state basketball championships in the past and set a standard for education in Wilson County.

The new plans will help keep those memories alive by incorporating pieces from the old school into the new one.

Casey Wooten, Principal at Fredrick Douglass Elementary School, said the school needed a new building.

"We had some issues like roof leaks every time it rained, or some of the walls would leak water on the inside, and anything we had on the walls would get wet," she said.

Wooten said her goal is to preserve the old school's history.

"For me, it is going to be really important to keep the line of communication open with the community and the Frederick Douglass Alumni Association," she said.

Freeman was invited back to the school with some classmates before the demolition. She said it was powerful to see the school one last time.

"I am grateful that the school system allowed that grieving process to take place," she said.

Though emotional, she's excited to see the building get a new life.

"You hope what is being rebuilt will serve for this the new generation what the old building served for us," she said.

Officials are finalizing designs for a new school, and construction will last for 16 months once it begins.

The school's builder, Barnhill Building Group, partnered with Wilson County Schools to produce a documentary titled "The Future's Past" of Frederick Douglass School" that also commemorates the school.

You can find that documentary here.