National Register of Historic Places
Davidson Elementary School
Kings Mountain, Cleveland County, North Carolina
The record
- Listed
- May 18, 2016
- Type
- Building
- Address
- 500 W. Piedmont Ave., Kings Mountain
- County
- Cleveland
- State
- North Carolina
- Contributing resources
- 1 building
- Coordinates
- 35.24461, -81.35198
- Reference number
- 16000287
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesUSGS Historical Topographic Map CollectionDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesBarry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
The story
Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com
Davidson Elementary School is a school building at 500 W. Piedmont Ave. in Kings Mountain, Cleveland County, built in 1953-1954 in the Modern Movement style by architect James Lorn Beam Jr. The Kings Mountain School Administrative Unit bought the 5.25-acre site from the Byers family in 1953.
Why it's listed
It was listed under criterion A and criteria consideration G, with local significance in education and Black ethnic heritage. Its significance runs from 1954, when the school opened on 29 November, to 1968, when it lost its role as the district's black school.
Physical character
The building has a concrete foundation, brick walls laid in a one-to-five bond, and a flat asphalt roof with a metal-clad wood cornice. Its center-hall plan has offset classroom blocks, banked metal windows with slate sills, terrazzo and poured-concrete floors, and willow oaks and other plantings added around 1954.
Historical context
An earlier Rosenwald-era Davidson School, built in 1925-1926, stood on the site until demolished in 1967. The new school served black elementary and high school students from 1954 to 1961, then black elementary students through 1968, its last year before desegregation. It served as administrative offices, then an alternative school, before a 2014 lease to the Davidson Alumni Resource Center.