Historic Preservation Project

Meadow View School, built around 1890 in Cabarrus County, is believed to be the last deconstructed African American “colored school” from the Jim Crow era in the county. Serving Black children during segregation, the one-room schoolhouse featured large windows typical of Rosenwald school designs, though Cabarrus County records note Meadow View before that era.

As part of county-wide school consolidation, Meadow View closed after integration and merged into the new Shankletown School in the first wave of three mergers, a process that also impacted many white rural schools. The Board of Education later sold the building, and it was moved from its original site by the Motley family.

County records list Mrs. Lucille Bost (Wyke) as principal; she went on to teach first grade at Shankletown, and some of her former students still live in the community today.

Meadow View, currently in storage in Concord, is being preserved and reconstructed under the leadership of the Historic Cabarrus Association, in partnership with Niblock Homes and the City of Concord. Once rebuilt near the historic Phifer Family cemetery, home to the famed Red Hill Tavern — a well-known 18th and 19th-century stagecoach stop along the Great Wagon Road that once hosted George Washington during his Southern Tour — the school will be restored as accurately as possible and serve as an educational site. Together, these efforts offer a vital reminder of the struggles and resilience of Black communities in their pursuit of education while preserving irreplaceable pieces of Cabarrus County’s history for future generations.