Renovations Highlight Legacy of Historic Little Rock School

WER has been working with the Little Rock School District over the last years on the efforts to preserve the historic Dunbar Magnet Middle School, which included installing over 100 energy-efficient windows, marking a new chapter for students and alumni. We are so excited about this project and can’t wait to share more with you all! Thanks to THV for the great article below highlighting the project.

You can watch the video here.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — New windows are providing a new chapter for a historic school in Little Rock. 

Dunbar Magnet Middle School students will soon have the opportunity to see the world while learning— and it's a bright future that even alumni look forward to seeing.

Erma Peterson attended Dunbar for junior high in the '60s and recalls the days with ease. 

"Dunbar was the high school, junior college, all of that at first, then they built Horace Mann, so that became the high school, and this became the junior high," Peterson described. 

Many have come to know the school as Dunbar Magnet Middle School today; however, it has had many names over the years, including The Negro School of Industrial Arts.

The rich history and legacy of the school are preserved by community advocates like the Dunbar Historic Neighborhood Association.

"We got together, the Little Rock School District, the Dunbar Neighborhood Association, parents, teachers, administrators here at the school. After the windows had been in the school and the windows were getting darker and darker and darker, there was a film across the windows," association president, Angel Burt said. "It was decided between all of us collaborating together, partnering together that, hey, these windows need to be replaced."

That push resulted in a $1.9 million upgrade, all made possible by a voter-approved extension of LRSD's debt.

The school received well over 100 energy-efficient windows, creating what Burt called a legacy of love for those who poured so much into this same community. 

"The legacy that we have in this community, where we've had so many beautiful icons, like attorney Scipio Africanus Jones, famous world composer, Florence Price, Sue Cowan Williams, so many iconic people from right here in this community, as we celebrate that we think about all the things that they've done, and they've done it out of love," Burt said. 

As the new school year gets underway, the principal of the school, Quintin Cain, said there's light leading the way. 

"It's just energy. It's positive energy. You know, some about sunlight. You know, we know that you know, vitamin D, you know, say things that you can just grasp, you know, say it easily, just from just changing windows," Cain said. "They're coming back to an environment where we specialize in captivating, motivating, and educating all students could be lifelong learners." 

For previous learners and doers, this small change is revealing a world of new possibilities. 

"One thing they should never forget, when walking through these doors, they are entering a hall of education that has served Little Rock Arkansas for almost 100 years," Peterson said.