Alexander-Ingram School

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Known as the Jeffersontown Colored School until 1961, this building on Shelby Street was constructed in 1929-30, using a $1,700 grant from the Julius Rosenwald Fund to aid African-American education, and $200 from the community, with the remainder made up in labor. The Art Deco-style building was unique in that it was made of brick and was larger than most Rosenwald schools.

Prior to the school's construction, St. Paul United Methodist Church, built in 1885, was used as a one-room schoolhouse for the black children in Jeffersontown, until the water there became contaminated by local outhouses. The school was moved to a house on Shelby Street until construction of the new brick building was complete. The newly built, two-story structure was the 13th county elementary school for black students.

The school was later dubbed "Alexander-Ingram" after Virginia B. Alexander, a teacher/principal from 1922-1931, and Annie C. Ingram, who taught there from 1914-1919. Another extremely popular teacher at the school was Sadie Mae Abstain, who not only attended school there herself, but spent most of her 40-plus years of teaching at the school; she began her career there when the school opened in 1931 and remained until the school closed in 1961, when the public school system integrated. 

In 1963, the 85 African-American pupils of the school were integrated into other Jeffersontown schools, and the building became an annex for the overflowing Jeffersontown Elementary School. The building was renovated and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. It is currently owned by First Baptist Church of Jeffersontown.