Dean Street School

Front: This building began as Dean Street School, a two-story wood frame structure built in 1891 to serve African American residents of Spartanburg. Local Black students previously attended several makeshift school spaces around the city. Dean Street had ten teachers and nearly 700 pupils in grades 1-8 around 1910. Nationally prominent Black educator Booker T. Washington gave an address at the school in 1907. Reverse: Major renovations were made in 1939 with aid from the Public Works Administration (PWA). The redesign by architect Harold E. Woodward removed the school’s second floor and added a brick veneer. By then the school had been renamed for Robert Milton Alexander, principal from 1894 until his 1930 death. Alexander Elementary School closed in 1967-68 as part of integration. Around sixty students in grades 1-3 attended its final year.