Desks With Initials Still Carved in Them: A Murfreesboro Family Is Working to Turn the Cemetery School Into a Museum
Some of the objects inside Murfreesboro's Cemetery School were never meant to be museum pieces. There are old textbooks, a vintage stove, and wooden desks with students' initials still carved into the tops. Now a man who grew up in the neighborhood is trying to make sure they stay put, and that the story of the place does too.
The school sits in the historic Cemetery community in Rutherford County and served Black children before desegregation. The building standing today was constructed in 1941. It replaced an original school built in 1874, and according to Vincent Windrow, that first building was burned down by people who did not want it there.
Windrow grew up in the Cemetery community, and his mother attended the school. He is now leading the effort to reopen and restore it. Over the years his family used the building to store personal belongings, and those everyday things became mixed in with genuine historical artifacts. Sorting one from the other is part of the work ahead.
The plan splits the building in two: a museum on one side and a community gathering space on the other. Windrow also wants to clear the rotting homes on the surrounding land to open up room for events and for school field trips, so that students can stand in the same rooms where children once learned. He is aiming to finish by 2027 and expects grants and contributions to help carry the project.
His own summary of the goal is simple: rebuild the past for the future so that the story of the Cemetery School does not fade.
Where it fits in Murfreesboro's story
Murfreesboro already has one landmark of Black education history. Bradley Academy, whose current building dates to 1917 and opened to African American students in 1918, is now the Bradley Academy Museum and Cultural Center, run by the city. The Cemetery School project would add a second chapter from a different neighborhood and a different era, told by someone whose family lived it.
No opening date, hours, admission price or public address has been announced, and the restoration is still ahead of the school rather than behind it. We will update this story when the project sets a date.
Planning a heritage day in Rutherford County? Start with our history lover's day in Murfreesboro, and if you are coming from out of town, book your stay before the fall weekends fill up.
Image: illustrative, AI-generated – not the actual location.
