Preserving Yesterday’s Memories for Today’s Generation
By Angelo Franceschina
The culmination of over four years of hard work for the Red Bank Community happened on Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 9:30 am, the historic Red Bank School was moved to its new home at Horizon Park. The project started when Randall Crews contacted Forsyth County commissioner Beaufort Bailey and myself, President/CEO of the Rural Initiative Project Inc. Numerous community meetings were held over the following years which resulted in the plan of moving the school from the path of a logging operation to a new home, in Horizon Park and raising funds to pay for moving and restoration. This allowed for the school to stay within the Red Bank Community.
Beaufort Bailey, in his usual “gracious and persistent manner,” was able to encourage fellow commissioners to provide the new home and contribute donations for the school once it moved to Horizon Park. The County also provided storage trailers for materials, and helped to clear the site. The generous gifts were approved by the County Commissioners on Tuesday, May 25, 2009. The county’s support and approval once again jumpstarted the movement that resulted in a wave of fund raising to save the historic Red Bank School.
The Red Bank Community formed a non-profit corporation Save Historic Red Bank School Inc. (SHRBS) under the leadership of president Toby Cranfill. The residents provided much of the labor to clean out and stabilize the site and school, while fundraising to pay for a mover to move the school. As an example, one of the residents, Brice Oakley, used his farm equipment to dig out the site to pour the concrete footers.
“If your grandpa taught there wouldn’t you want to do something about it,” said Nora Cranfill, wife of Save Historic Red Bank School Inc. president Toby Cranfill. The success of preserving the Red Bank School is contributed to the Red Bank Community which rallied to save the history and legacy of their community. Red Bank is a rural community composed mostly of farmers, growers, long term landowners and many had direct ties to the school. They were either descendants of the founding committee, or their ancestors went to school there.
The Red Bank School will be renovated as it was in 1881: completely void of technology (no heat, no electricity, no air conditioning, etc.). This is to show what it was like to attend school with conditions well below the standards of today. The plan is to make the school a visitor and educational learning center were residents and children from the community and surrounding areas can learn about their past.
Like any other community project, the preservation of the Red Bank School was not done in a self-contained bubble but as partnership with other organizations. It could not have happened without Forsyth County under the leadership of Commissioner Bailey and County Manager Dudley Watts, who took the mantel of his commissioners and made it happen. The Winston-Salem Foundation saw the strength in the leadership and the “Social Capital” in the Red Bank community made two grants toward the school’s restoration once it is moved. Most important, the Red Bank community and the board of directors SHRBS was the leader from the beginning. It was their school; they wanted to preserve; and they did what was necessary to make the preservation come to fruition.
©2011 Angelo Franceschina
