The Catonsville “Colored School”
Many people are aware that the initial “colored school” in Catonsville was located at 872 Edmondson Ave, which is now the Amazing Grace Church. (See picture). In fact, there is a plaque at that location indicating that this was the location of the school. You can see the original stone foundation of the school in today’s building. However, we’d like to give additional details, as gained from the book by Louis S. Diggs: “It All Started on Winters Lane”.
After the civil war ended in 1865, the Federal Freedman Bureau was created to help support newly freed blacks. In 1867, the Freedman Bureau purchased a piece of property on the northeast corner of Winters Lane and Edmondson Ave. This property was deeded to the “colored people of Catonsville and their successors forever, for school and educational purposes”.
The school opened in 1868. The original building was very small. It had a wood burning stove but no electricity or bathroom facility. Because of its size, several grades had to be moved across the street on Edmondson Ave to the Mount Olivet United Methodist Church, and to the grocery store at the northwest corner of Winters and Edmondson Ave (today’s location of CVS). which was known as the Washington grocery store (and later Shocket’s Market).
The original building housed the 1st and 2nd grades, Mount Olivet United Methodist Church housed the 3rd and 4th grades, and on the second floor of the grocery store the 5th and 6th grades were housed. The 6th grade was as far in school that black children could go in Baltimore County. If they wanted to attend school beyond the elementary level, they had to travel to Baltimore City to attend secondary school.
By 1923 black students were transferred to a modern brick building named Banneker School, named after the 1800th century local Oella area black scientist and surveyor. The Banneker school was built on the Margaret Lynch estate located on the corner of Main and Wesley Ave. It originally only had four rooms, but later was extended to 8 rooms. The new school provided education initially to the 11th grade, and then later (1951) to the 12th grade.
In the early 1960’s, the public schools of Baltimore County were integrated and the students of Banneker transferred to regular public schools in Catonsville. Banneker was then closed as a public school and was changed into a Community Center.
The use of the original school, together with the use of a local church and grocery store to house students, is a testament to the resourcefulness of blacks in the Catonsville area in their quest to obtain an education.