Parks Hutchison School
(ca. 1926)
Designed by noted architect Louis Asbury, the Parks Hutchison School has served the educational needs of Charlotte’s children for more than 95 years.
1400 N. Graham., Charlotte, NC 28206
The Parks Hutchison School was erected as part of a statewide movement to improve education and reduce local tax dollars spent on school facilities by consolidating small rural schools into larger centralized buildings and using transportation advances to bus children from more remote areas to those schools. The larger “consolidated” schools took inspiration from Classical, Gothic, and Tudor architecture. Because of ongoing Jim Crow segregation practices at that time, however, those schools were typically built solely for White students. Black students in rural areas continued to attend school in small separate buildings that, in comparison to the facilities provided for White students, were typically substandard.
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In May 1924, Mecklenburg County voters awarded the School Board and City Council one million dollars to construct new schools. Consultants from New York’s Columbia University recommended sites for six new school buildings and additions to two existing schools. Charlotte native and notable local architect Louis H. Asbury (1877-1975) was retained as the principal architect for the overall project. He designed at least five of the six new schools: Wilmore School, Seversville School (for which he used the same drawings as Wilmore), Morgan School, Piedmont Junior High School, and Parks Hutchison School. Asbury, North Carolina’s first native-born professionally trained architect to practice in his home state, studied architecture at Trinity College (now Duke University) and M.I.T. before returning to his hometown in 1908 to open his own firm. As the state’s first member of the American Institute of Architects, Asbury earned hundreds of commissions, including such notable projects as the First National Bank skyscraper on South Tryon, the Mecklenburg County Courthouse, Mayfair Manor (now Dunhill Hotel), and the Myers Park and Hawthorne Lane Methodist Churches.
Parks Hutchison School was built on a four-acre lot purchased from the estate of Charlotte native David Parks Hutchison (1853-1922), a successful local businessman who pursued a wide range of business ventures. Hutchison devoted much of his time working to make Charlotte a better city, focusing primarily on developing better political leaders and improved infrastructure like better roads and waterworks. He served for twenty-five years as chairman of Charlotte’s Board of Trustees. When the Parks Hutchison School opened in September 1926, it had nearly 200 pupils in grades 1-5, with the ability to add a sixth grade when necessary. The building has been operated as a school or other educational facility for more than 95 years.