The restored two-room 1925 Oak Grove school building in Gallion will reopen to the public with a ribbon-cutting on Saturday, Oct. 25, at 11 a.m. The former school for African American students, now a community center and museum at 142 Oak Grove Road, stands as a local example of Alabama’s Rosenwald program.
The historic Oak Grove Rosenwald School in Gallion will reopen to the public on Saturday, October 25, 2025, at 11:00 a.m., capping a years-long effort to save and restore one of Hale County’s most important educational landmarks.
Organizers said the tworoom school, built in 1925 for African American students and closed in 1968, has been fully renovated and will now serve as a community center and museum at 142 Oak Grove Road.
They invited the public to attend the ribbon-cutting and celebration and asked that inquiries and confirmations be sent to ogsheritagecenter@gmail.com.
Oak Grove is one of Alabama’s surviving Rosenwald schools—the product of a partnership between local Black communities, the State of Alabama, Tuskegee Institute’s school building program, and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, then president of Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Designed under Tuskegee architect Samuel L. Smith’s plans for twoteacher schools, Oak Grove opened in 1925 and educated generations of students through the 1960s. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a representative example of the statewide Rosenwald program.
According to organizers, the renovation drew major support from the National Historic Preservation Fund, the Alabama Historical Commission, and the Tombigbee Council, alongside local contributions. Recent preservation-grant listings also show Oak Grove School Heritage Center receiving funding for building repairs as the project moved toward completion.
The new museum will preserve the school’s history and the broader story of education and civil rights in Hale County, with exhibits planned on the 1960s and 1970s era that reshaped life in the Black Belt.
The building stands today as a testament to the Rosenwald program’s impact. Historians have called the initiative one of the most significant efforts to advance Black education in the early twentieth century, and Oak Grove remains a locally documented example of that legacy near the Gallion community.
The reopening ceremony will be held at the Oak Grove Rosenwald School, 142 Oak Grove Road, Gallion, Alabama, on Saturday, October 25.
