A.L. Corbett School

Front: A.L. Corbett School for grades 1-12 opened at this site in 1954. The $600,000-facility was funded by the state equalization program, an effort to preserve segregation by improving African American schools. It enrolled 785 students in its first year and was named for longtime Wagener mayor and school board member Adien Lecroy Corbett. The school’s first principal was Woodrow Z. Wilson. Reverse: In 1958 James O. Brown became principal of the school’s elementary grades. Planned by prominent Columbia architects Lyles, Bissett, Carlisle & Wolff, Corbett School had thirty-six classrooms and was co-winner of a national competition for modern school design. In 1970 it became a middle school as part of integration. Thr 1954 campus was razed in 2002. Only the gym and auditorium remain.