Marley Neck School is a modest clapboard building more than 75 years old, a former schoolhouse for black children that now has peeling paint and holes that let daylight through the siding.
For decades when it was open, Marley Neck had no electricity, depending on large windows to let in sunlight. Heat was provided by two large cast-iron stoves that burned wood or coal during the day, and had to be banked overnight. Water came from a well in front, and in back were separate privies for girls and boys.
But some who attended the Glen Burnie school during the era of segregation have nothing but fond memories -- and now are fighting to preserve it.
A bill introduced by Anne Arundel County Del. Joan Cadden seeks a $331,000 bond to restore Marley Neck School, one of 24 in the county built with assistance from the Rosenwald Fund, set up in 1911 by Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Co. from 1909 to 1924.
Rosenwald was inspired by Chicago rabbi Emil Hirsch, who advocated teaching self-help along with charity. In 1913 Rosenwald began working with civil rights leader Booker T. Washington, who shared his belief in self-reliance. Grants from Rosenwald were contingent on substantial contributions from local sources.
Marley Neck School got about 15 percent of its construction cost of $4,300 from the Rosenwald Fund. Anne Arundel County bore most of the cost, but parents had to scramble to come up with the rest.
At one time, Marley Neck was among about 300 Rosenwald schools in the state and about 5,300 in the southeastern United States.
Marley Neck's neighbor Freetown, which in the 19th century was the heart of the county's largest population of free blacks outside of Annapolis, rescued its Rosenwald school, as have the communities of Shady Side and Edgewater. All are used now as community centers. A school in Galesville is not being used.
The push to restore Marley Neck came from Helen Johnson, 66, of Glen Burnie, who attended school at Freetown, and from other members of the Friends of Marley Neck School.
"We were a very close community," said Rosalie Gaither, who attended the school during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
"Teachers pushed all of us to do better," said Yvonne Henry, who was in Gaither's class.
