Pantego School No. 2

The aptly titled Pantego School No. 2 is the second Rosenwald School in Pantego Township. This seven-teacher school, built to Rosenwald plans, replaced an earlier frame Rosenwald-funded school for African Americans that burned in 1921. The local African American community raised funds to contribute to a new school that was approved by the county’s school board and built in 1926. Throughout the mid-20th century as schools in the county were consolidated, more students were assigned to the school in Pantego and the campus was re-named Beaufort County High School.  Despite the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, it was not until the 1968-69 school year that Beaufort County schools were fully integrated. In the Pantego district, Pantego School No. 2 was re-purposed as Beaufort County Elementary School to house an integrated student body of grades 1-7.  The school operated on this campus until the spring of 2001. Subsequently the school building has served as a community center, owned by school alumni.

The school is significant as one of 817 educational buildings funded by the Rosenwald program in 93 of the 100 counties in North Carolina, and one of six in Beaufort County. The school was an integral part of the African American community in Pantego Township and was supported by strong advocates for its improvement and retention throughout the course of its active use as a school. Architecturally, the school retains the hallmarks of a Rosenwald school, namely banks of large windows to aid in circulation and lighting, and adherence to standard plans that marked a vast improvement over typical schools for African Americans of the period.

Hanbury Preservation Consulting prepared the National Register nomination and the school was designated in February 2026. A copy of the nomination can be found here https://www.hpo.nc.gov/nr-nominations/bf1076/open