Modeling and Monitoring the Rosenwald Ideal: Digital Documentation and Preservation at the Tankersley Rosenwald School, Alabama

Established across the American South between 1917 and 1932, Rosenwald Schools were instrumental in educating African American children during segregation. These structures were also innovative and efficient due to their incorporation of passive systems, such as natural daylighting, deep overhangs for shading, elevated foundations for natural ventilation, and movable partitions for flexible classroom instruction. They were models for sustainable design and construction, intrinsically connected to fostering the health, well-being, and vibrancy of the neighboring communities. Now, however, many of these structures are abandoned and deteriorating, in urgent need of digital documentation and preservation. According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, only 10–12% of the 5357, structures associated with the Rosenwald building campaign survive; most of the schools, shops, and homes for teachers have been erased from the physical built environment, leaving few examples for study, preservation, and essential historic interpretation. This chapter will explore the ongoing documentation, restoration, and reinvention work at the Tankersley Rosenwald School (1922) in Hope Hull, Alabama, just south of Montgomery. Demonstrating the feasibility of melding digital documentation of fragmented sites with archival material to enhance historic interpretation and public outreach, this project augments sequential point cloud captures for deep climatic and structural data analysis, proposes workflows for non-invasive defect monitoring, and serves as an example of community-grounded field work focused on resiliency.