Dunbar High’s Women’s Basketball Team in 1947-48- East Spencer, North Carolina
The team members in this photograph include in the front row, left to right: Ruby Dalton, Jewell Witherspoon, Betty Kelly (co-captains) and Maggie Cherry.
Middle row: Nona Bolt, Carolyn Kincaid, Earlene Mack and Annie Lois Kelly.
Third row: Lillian Hall, Patsy White, Frances Bailey and Mattie Bell Brown. Coach Harry Koontz is standing in the back.
East Spencer is a historically Black town in North Carolina, near Salisbury.
During Jim-Crow-era racial segregation, East Spencer's Dunbar School was the African American school for grades 1-12 outside of the city of Salisbury.
The school was Initially built as a one-room school house in in 1870 by William Syphax, President of the Board of Trustees for Colored Schools, as the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth.
The property was first called East Spencer Negro School. Several rooms were added as the student body grew. In 1921, it had a growth spurt, going from eight rooms to a new, 11-room classroom structure with an auditorium, library, office, lunchroom and a basement.
In 1958, it was renamed Dunbar High School after Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the first Black poets to gain national recognition and who was published by the age of 14.
A decade later, the school was both integrated and renamed, this time as North Rowan Middle School. But by the 1990s, the school was well past its glory days, and it took a group of residents to prevent demolition of part of the campus in order to create an alternative school.
In 1995, still owned by the school system, the facility returned to its honorary name and became the Paul Laurence Dunbar Center, housing both school and public offices and private entities.
At the end of December 2014, parts of the facility were destroyed by a five-alarm fire that required dozens of firefighters to control. However, some of the structure that was not damaged continued to be used until 2000, when it was clear more of the building had fallen into disrepair.
And despite the multiple attempts at finding a new use for the site, any cleanup following the 2014 fire also never happened, and over the years, the town has been left with what many consider an eye sore sitting on the main thoroughfare. The damaged and empty property was also never fenced off and the parts destroyed by fire remained on site for almost eight years.
The town has paid for a crew to remove the fire-damaged portions, but the cost reached nearly $200,000, Town Manager Michael Douglas received approval from the board of aldermen to pay for the removal,
Today the property is still owned by an investment group called the Paul L Dunbar Group or PDLG, made up of private investors.
Source: Salisbury Post News