Okolona Colored High School Gymnasium

United States historic place


Okolona Colored High School Gymnasium
U.S. National Register of Historic Places


33°59′35″N 93°20′23″W / 33.99306°N 93.33972°W / 33.99306; -93.33972
Area	1.5 acres (0.61 ha)
Built	c. 1950
NRHP reference No.	11000686^[1]
Added to NRHP	September 23, 2011

The Okolona Colored High School Gymnasium is a historic academic athletic building at 767 Layne Street in Okolona, Arkansas. It is the only surviving building of a school campus built c. 1950 to provide schooling to local African-American students. The building is a large rectangular structure with no significant stylistic elements. Its walls are primarily corrugated metal, although a portion of the front and sides near the front are composed of clay tile blocks. The campus it was a part of began in 1928 with a modest two-room school building constructed with supported from the Rosenwald Fund, and grew over the years to include vocational and home economics facilities, in addition to a cafeteria and additional classrooms. The gymnasium was designed to serve as a multi-function athletic facility and meeting space for the local African-American community. The Okolona schools were consolidated with those of neighboring Simmons, and all of the other buildings of this campus were demolished in the 1970s and 1980s.^[2]

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
^ "NRHP nomination for Okolona Colored High School Gymnasium". Arkansas Preservation. Retrieved 2014-09-05.