Rosedale schoolhouse to be preserved

Even those who use the old schoolhouse on the side of a former Baltimore County turnpike call it weathered.

So it was easy for state transportation officials to assume the dilapidated structure was abandoned and insignificant before authorizing road-widening to accommodate a new 7-Eleven across the street.

The improvements brought busy Philadelphia Road traffic 16 feet closer to the Rosedale school ? leaving but a sliver of grass in between ? and a steep 4-foot slope to the front door.

“Apparently, they didn?t do their due diligence,” said Lenwood Johnson, the county?s liaison to black communities. “If they had checked in here with us, they would have known it was a protected building. If they had just bothered to inquire around the neighborhood, they could have probably learned it?s in use.”

By “protected,” Johnson refers to the former school?s status on thecounty?s roster of historic landmarks, a designation that typically carries perpetual safeguards from development. Today, state transportation Secretary Robert Flanagan is expected to announce a $125,000 plan to restore the building and relocate it to a donated adjacent half-acre parcel farther from the road.

The funding will enable members of the traditionally black Loreley community and the local Union of Brothers and Sisters ? a benevolent society that has existed longer than the school and uses the building for meetings ? to transform the hall into a cultural resource center.

The solution, officials said, was a compromise among lodge members, the state?s historical trust and highway administrators.

“Everyone worked together very well to make sure this important building was not lost,” SHA spokeswoman Sandra Dodson said. “The building is going to get upgraded a little bit and the community gets to keep its link to the pasts. It?s a win-win situation for everyone.”

Dating to the 1870s, Colored School #2, as it was called, was one of the first schoolhouses in the area, officials said. It was built by Dr. Walter T. Allender, also the namesake of one of the nearest intersecting streets, and donated to Baltimore County. The county added the building to its landmarks list in 2000.

Officials said the building will be moved as soon as weather permits.

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