AFRICAN AMERICAN SCHOOL BUILDING REVIVAL
Vernon School
Washington Parish
The Vernon School is located on what is now known as Vernon School Road in Mt. Hermon, Louisiana, and its campus consists of multiple now-abandoned buildings. This area of the Florida Parishes in present-day Louisiana was inhabited by newly-freed enslaved people and Flat Bush Indians. Louis Vernon, a direct descendant of a former enslaved person who settled in the area after being freed, founded a school in the building on his property in 1885, only twenty years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Forty years later, on August 25, 1925, three acres of land were purchased from the Vernon family to erect a school on the present site. The deeds were signed by Ed Vernon, D. M. Brumfield, and Dave Wrought, who was one of the earlier bus drivers. Fraser Vernon served as this school’s first principal. The Rosenwald Fund contributed money towards the building at the present site in June 1949, and in November 1951 an elementary school was added. In 1960, the School Board purchased an additional 4.7 acres from Isadore Vernon, first bus driver for Vernon School, and another portion in 1961 from Marcel Dyson, Crimal Dyson Williamson, and Arthur Williamson. Also in 1961, funds from the PTA helped create a covered walkway, and an agriculture shop. Few details were widely available about the school's present state but it has been vacant for some years.
Vernon School
OPENED: 1949
CLOSED: 1969
OTHER NAMES OF SCHOOL: Vernon School for African American Students
OTHER USES/CURRENT USE: Vacant
SQUARE FOOTAGE: 19,600 sf
PROPERTY OWNER: Unknown
