The building that houses the Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson has been around for 70 years, originally as a school for African-American kids and now as a community center.

Its alternating periods of activity and abandonment over that time can be seen as a “moral, ethical and spiritual temperature gauge” for the town of Davidson, said Jan Blodgett, one several speakers at a program Sunday about Ada Jenkins’ history. Ms. Blodgett is Davidson College’s archivist and a researcher of town history.

The panelists spoke during a meeting of the Davidson Historical Society, at Ada Jenkins Center, 212 Gamble St. Read the rest of this post.

Speakers at the Davidson Historical Society program Sunday at Ada Jenkins, from left, Jan Blodgett with Sauni Wood; Adeline Ostwalt (center); Ruby Houston.

Joining Ms. Blodgett were Ruby Houston, a student at the school up to the early 1960s; Adeline Ostwalt, one of its first white teachers in the midst of integration in 1965; and Sauni Wood, who helped start up a community center in the 1970s.

NAMED FOR FOUNDER

The school was named for Miss Ada Jenkins, the longtime elementary principal who led a campaign to build the school after the town’s wooden schoolhouse for black children burned down. Initially called the Davidson Colored School when it opened in 1937, it later was renamed in her honor.

Ms. Houston, a lifelong Davidson resident and now a family involvement coordinator with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, recalled attending the school until it closed in 1965. African American students were transferred to other schools as part of the district’s integration efforts, and Ms. Houston was among the first African Americans to graduate from previously all-white North Mecklenburg High.

But no other school could be like Ada Jenkins School, she said.

“The strongest thing that I can remember is the connection between the home and school, that is not as present today as we desire it to be. … If you got in trouble at school, you were in trouble in the church and the community as well,” Ms. Houston said.

When people in Charlotte learn that Ms. Houston lives in Davidson, they often ask her, “Oh, do you live at the lake?” she said. But she is quick to tell them she still lives on Davidson’s west side, not far from Ada Jenkins.

“I haven’t moved far from this school, (and) I also live in Miss Ada Jenkins’ house,” Ms. Houston said. “It is a place that I love dearly.”

INTEGRATION

Also during Sunday’s program, Ms. Ostwalt remembered coming to the school in 1965 as a second-grade teacher – a lone white teacher sent into the black school in the year before integration. “Integration brought me to Ada Jenkins,” she said.

It was a challenge at first, but soon people were smiling and talking to her in the hallways as they would any other teacher. To her students, she was a teacher – not a white person or a black person. She told a funny story to illustrate the point:

One day Ms. Ostwalt’s husband stopped to see her at the school. Afterward, a girl student asked: “Was that your boyfriend that came over here today?”

“No, that was my husband,” Ms. Ostwalt replied.

A little boy sat up quickly and chimed in: “But he was a white man.”

“I’m white, too. Does that matter?” Ms. Ostwalt replied.

“No, you’re our teacher,” the boy said.

Ms. Ostwalt said, “That just showed me that we learn segregation and we teach it in so many ways.”

COMMUNITY CENTER

After Ada Jenkins School closed in 1965, it became one of the region’s first Head Start centers. A few years later, the county pulled the pilot program out and opened Head Start programs in Charlotte, leaving the building mostly vacant. For years, community leaders worked to build a community center in its place.

In 1974, they turned to Sauni Wood for help. She was new in town, recently arrived along with her husband, Ken Wood, who had gotten a job on the faculty at Davidson College. She had previous experience running social programs, and was asked to help set up a new community social services center at Ada Jenkins.

Working there “enabled me to meet the whole community,” Ms. Wood said – not just the people in the college community on the other side of town.

“It had some challenges,” she recalled. Although she eventually moved on to another job, Ms. Wood has stayed close to Ada Jenkins, much the same as Ms. Houston. (“It gets in your blood,” Ms. Wood explained.)

Since the early 1990s, Ms. Wood has watched as a new generation of volunteers came together again to rebuild a community center in the building. Today, the center is a strong as it has ever been. (The center is about to go through another transition: Director Bill Johnson is leaving, and a search is underway for his replacement. See related story below.)

Ada Jenkins Center is home to the Loaves & Fishes food pantry, a senior meal program, social workers, health programs (including the Free Clinic of Our Towns), Boys and Girls Clubs of Our Towns, Head Start, ESL and computer trainers, and other programs.

“Now we have a community center we can be proud of,” Ms. Wood said.

‘SPIRITUAL BAROMETER’

That may bode well for the overall health of the Davidson Community, according to Ms. Blodgett.

She said the Ada Jenkins building has at times fallen into disuse, as the community’s energy waned or other problems took precedence. “And when it sits empty, it hurts the whole community,” she said.

“For me, Ada Jenkins represents sort of a moral, ethical, spiritual temperature gauge for the town of Davidson. When it’s doing well, we’re doing well. And when it’s not doing well, we’re … not looking at the full community.”

“So understanding and looking at this, the history of this building and how it’s been used, is really a reflection of how the town sees itself, works together, doesn’t always work together, and comes back,” Ms. Blodgett said.

“I’m hoping we don’t have to have another dip in this building and it will continue to just flourish and continue to be an important place,” she said.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

For more information about the Davidson Historical Society, visit its website at http://www.davidsonhistoricalsociety.org .

For more information about Ada Jenkins Center and its programs, visit its website at http://www.adajenkins.org/

The Free Clinic of Our Towns will hold a volunteer appreciation and open house on Tuesday from 5-8 p.m., at the center, 212 Gamble St. Details at the Ada Jenkins center website.