Asheville, NC - Safety Patrols, Mountain Street School-
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"When the school committee finally opened Mountain Street in 1890, it did provide some relief from the overcrowding at Beaumont Street. But the Mountain Street facility turned out to be nothing more than a frame building with an outhouse, most likely an old dwelling that had been repaired and pressed into service as a school.
Black families would have to wait two more years for a decent school building. With the opening of Catholic Hill in the fall of 1892, Black people in Asheville finally had a school they could be proud of, a brand new facility designed expressly for education."
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TUESDAY, JULY 07, 2020 / PUBLISHED IN AFRICAN AMERICANS, ASHEVILLE HISTORY, EDUCATION, LOCAL HISTORY, PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION

New Research Reveals New Information:
Asheville’s First Public Schools For Black children
For more than a year, I have collected every newspaper article on the Beaumont Academy, Beaumont School and the Mountain Street School, in my quest to gather information on the first public schools for Black children in Asheville.

But something puzzled me – where was the original location of the county-operated Beaumont Academy (1875-1888) that would later become the city-operated Beaumont School in 1888?
I read the Asheville School Committee minutes and indexed any reference to “the Colored School.”

I poured over all the early maps in the North Carolina Room Collection. Asheville City Directories did not list the school’s location even on the street indexes. I checked the few books on the subject. And I scoured over early handwritten deeds recorded at the Buncombe County Register of Deeds–most of them barely legible. Still, I was not able to find where the Beaumont School was located.

Another puzzle was, when the Mountain Street School opened up in the fall of 1890, why was there no mention in the newspapers, or in the school committee minutes for purchase of a lot or building on Mountain Street?
Nor was there any record of contracts put out to bid, purchases for building materials, or rent costs.

A newspaper article on August 25, 1890 simply reported that Superintendent Claxton would begin examining and classifying children prior to the new school term starting on September 1, 1890. The examinations for the Black children would be held at “Mountain street school (colored).”

This is the first time the newspaper used the name “Mountain Street School.” The second Asheville Citizen use of “Mountain Street School”–following many references to the “colored graded school”–was on October 12, 1891, listing the teachers of each grade level.

The heading is “Mountain Street School, (Colored).” There is no use of the name “Mountain Street School” in the School Committee minutes. They did not report in the minutes that Beaumont School would now be called Mountain Street School.

It was obvious that a new school for Black children was forthcoming.
As soon as the School Committee had gotten the first two schools open, Beaumont School for Blacks and the Academy Street School (later, Montford Street School when Academy Street’s name was changed to Montford Avenue) for whites, they began planning for a second school for whites. Architect and contractor plans were already in place by June 1888. Orange Street School, the second school for whites, opened December 1, 1888.

A new school for Black children was desperately needed, mostly due to overcrowding and very poor conditions at Beaumont School. The School Committee minutes first mention the need for a new school for blacks on May 31, 1890.

A special meeting was called to report that they were “to purchase a lot on Sycamore Street for Colored School purposes.” A second special committee was called two weeks later (June 16, 1890) and they reported “on purchase of lot for Colored school purposes” [and also] reported the “purchase of such lot on Velvet St. for $325.00.

“On motion Chairman West was directed to advertise for bids for plans of a new school building for Colored Schools, in his discretion, not to exceed $3,000.” At least one of these properties is assumed to be the lot that Catholic Hill School was later built on.

Read more here: https://specialcollections.buncombecounty.org/.../new.../

Narrative source: https://specialcollections.buncombecounty.org/.../ashevi.../