The smell of wet paint hung in the air early today as workers put the finishing touches on Siloam School, a historic structure once used to educate Black children in Mecklenburg County.
The Charlotte Museum of History raised $1.2 million — much of that from city and county government — to move an restore the building.
The original school was built by Black churchgoers in the early 1920s — a time when black children across the South had few educational options. For decades, it sat abandoned and nearly collapsed in what is now the Mallard Creek area of Charlotte.
At its new location on the museum grounds, the restored building will be used as an educational tool to teach some of the often-overlooked history of Mecklenburg County.
On Saturday, June 15, the public can get an up-close look at the restored school when the museum hosts a Grand Re-Opening and ribbon-cutting at 11 a.m. Public tours will start at noon.
Here’s one of the first stories I wrote about the project.
