Throwback Thursday: State Street School
We continue Black History Month with a story about State Street School, the first African American school built in Bowling Green. Though the school was razed in the 1960’s, there are pieces that still remain and stories to be told. This is a brief story of the school that taught Black students in Bowling Green for over 60 years.
According to the National Register of Historic Places highlighting the Shake Rag District in Downtown Bowling Green, the original State Street School was built at the 204 address in 1885. There were over 400 students enrolled by the second year it operated. Students were taught from the first to eighth grades.
The State Street School gymnasium was built next door to the school in 1929. Though the school was razed in 1962, the gymnasium is still standing today in the 200 block of State Street. It’s no longer a gym, but the shell of the building retains its history.
The gymnasium was home to the State Street Mustangs, the basketball team that brought lots of fans for several years into the 1950’s. In Fact, the records and photos of those teams can be found on display at the Bowling Green Parks & Recreation’s F.O. Moxley Community Center. The entrance hallway is lined with framed photos and clippings from championship-winning State Street Mustang teams. In many of these championship games, the Mustangs beat the all-white basketball in our region.
A State Street cafeteria was built in the 1940s to provide easy access to food for students and staff, and a Bowling Green Academy and Girls Dormitory was also built on the campus. The academy provided Black girls with high school educations instead of forcing them to move to Nashville or Louisville for the opportunity. Unfortunately, both of these buildings were torn down in the 1950s.
These State Street School stories are part of the bigger Shake Rag Historic District stories. Find out more on the WNKY site or visit the Shake Rag blog published on the Bowling Green Convention & Visitors Bureau’s website.
