Darwin School

Darwin School is a Tennessee historical marker in Cookeville, Putnam County.

Putnam Co., on McClellan Avenue,1913-1963 North of West End Street, Cookeville

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West Cookeville Junior High School was constructed in 1928 for African American students with funding from the local community and the Julius Rosenwald Fund. In 1936 a high school was added to the junior high school and named to honor J. Claude Darwin, a white Cookeville businessman and member of the Putnam County Board of Education, who promoted education for African Americans. Darwin's first graduating class was in 1938. Darwin School provided education to the African American students of Putnam and surrounding counties until it burned in January 1963, prompting school desegregation in the Upper Cumberland a year later.

TodayHistorical map

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Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library

Historical maps covering this location

1796 · Map of The Tennassee (sic) Government. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1797 · Tennassee Government. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1862 · Johnson's Kentucky & Tennessee (1862) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1864 · Kentucky And Tennessee (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1927 · Relief map, state of Tennessee (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)

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Marker text and location from the Tennessee Historical Commission, as the Commission publishes them on its marker map.

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