Echola School

echola-schoola_48adf50862.jpg

Title

Echola School

Subject

Schools
Whilldin, D.O. (David Oliver), 1881-1970

Description

The Echola School in the west Tuscaloosa County community of Echola was a five room schoolhouse built in 1921. Although the documentation is fragmentary, this building was probably designed by D. O. Whilldin as part of a building program undertaken by the Tuscaloosa County Board of Education. W.M. White was the first principal. Teachers often had two or more grades in one room. Students in grades 1 through 11 were taught, but had to transfer to other schools, usually Tuscaloosa County High or Gordo High School, to graduate.

The building ceased to be used for educational purposes in 1950.

In 1976, as part of a bicentennial project, the Echola community chose to restore the school and use it as a community center, leaving one room as an exhibit of how the classrooms would have looked in the 1920s.

A fire of undetermined origin left the building unsafe, leading to its demolition in 2010.

Source

Friends of Historic Northport

Contributor

Betty Slowe (Description)

Type

Photograph

Identifier

137

Coverage

Tuscaloosa County (AL)

Original Format

Photograph