Little Rock Paul Laurence Dunbar School, Art Deco architectural style.

Dunbar High School Alma Mater


DUNBAR, our beauteous school long may she strive...

Take from our lips a song, Dunbar, to thee



I hope there is something worthy in my writings and not merely the novelty of a black face associated with the power to rhyme that has attracted attention.

 


Paul Laurence Dunbar

Poet Laureate



The Little Rock Paul Laurence Dunbar School is a National Register of Historic Places (1980) designation and official National Park Service certification.  The Little Rock Paul Laurence Dunbar School National Site exemplifies noteworthy accomplishments of the Little Rock Negro community amidst social injustice and racial segregation within the City of Little Rock at the turn of the twentieth century.

In fortifying values adherent about academic excellence and self-determination, the Little Rock Paul Laurence Dunbar 'Negro' students were daunting in the struggle for human dignity, liberty, and freedom despite state-sponsored 'separate but equal" doctrine and other unlawful decree.

At onset of the 1920 decennial decade, the Little Rock Negro community rallied around an educational institution destined as a game-changer in the education of the Little Rock Negro community.  The Paul Laurence Dunbar School, namesake of the first Negro laureate opened its doors as the premier education gateway for Negro students both far and near in 1929.

The Paul Laurence Dunbar School exemplified mind over matter and offered comprehensive academic courses in areas of:  Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Geometry, Algebra, Arithmetic, Trigonometry, Printing, Typing, French, Latin, Clothing and Design, Pressing and Laundry Services, Auto Mechanics, Carpentry, Concrete Masonry, Brick and Stone, and other curricular studies.

As an acquaintance of Julius Rosenwald an American businessman and philanthropist, Booker T. Washington was highly influential in persuading Rosenwald to become an advocate about the education of the Negro in the U.S. and early on 1912.   

As the Rosenwald Fund administered financing and construction of 5,000 schools in the South and totaling more than $4 million, the Little Rock Paul Laurence Dunbar School construction was financed through the Julius Rosenwald Fund.

The Little Rock Paul Laurence Dunbar School and a National Register of Historic Places nomination (1980) is one of known seven U.S. public schools bearing Paul Laurence Dunbar namesake.  The Little Rock Paul Laurence Dunbar School is located at 1100 Wright Avenue Street and at the heart of the Paul Laurence Dunbar School Neighborhood Historic District.

The Little Rock Negro community did honor Paul Laurence Dunbar as America's first Negro Poet Laureate.  Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio (1872-1906).


                               

 



Welcome!


The LR Paul Laurence Dunbar School Neighborhood Historic District website!



Consultant/Nominator of Historic Properties, Eligibility and Determination!



The LR Paul Laurence Dunbar School Neighborhood Historic District website inform historic preservation services as an economic engine and useful tool in the redevelopment of older built environs.

 

(Historic) Preservation responsibility supports three-fold objectives of:


1)  Preservation planning in support of preservation, protection, and restoration of historic structures.

2)  Generation of on-the-job training in support of standards of rehabilitation and skills acquisition.

3)  Nomination of historic properties to National Register of Historic Places and development.





Loretta J. Hendrix

Preservationist/Nominator

Proposal Development                     

                                                                                                                                                                         


Developer of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) (2006) proposal to CLR Neighborhoods and Planning (2006) in support of namely, the Paul Laurence Dunbar School Neighborhood Historic District and recommendation about the National Register of Historic Places and nomination.  Presenter of proposal to LR HUD Regional Office (2004) in support of (CDBG) funding and appropriations.


(LR) Paul Laurence Dunbar School Neighborhood Historic District


Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places:  (2013 April)


Certified by the National Park Service:  (2013 September)



The historic Dunbar neighborhood residents hold dear to heart the Negro cultural constructs espoused by the Paul Laurence Dunbar School faculty and staff relative to Africana-American values and tradition.  This website celebrates the Paul Laurence Dunbar School legacy as well as the Paul Laurence Dunbar School Neighborhood Historic District and cultural heritage.


Certification of the Paul Laurence Dunbar School Neighborhood Historic District and granted by the National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places and (09.2013) nomination in recognition of Africana-Americans whom held steadfastly extolling meritorious value of academic rigor and excellence in pursuit of an education as means to an end. 


The Paul Laurence Dunbar School Neighborhood Historic District survey commenced about 2011 September.  Proposed historic district survey and development submitted to City of Little Rock and 2006 Community Development Block Grant proposal and development by Loretta J. Hendrix.