Contributed by Teresa Douglass, Genealogy Specialist
The Leora Brown School in Corydon is one of the most significant historic resources of Harrison County’s African American history. Built on Summit Street in 1891, the one-story, frame school building served the town’s African American students and remains the oldest standing African American schoolhouse in Indiana.
Originally known as the Corydon Colored School, the building served as both a grade and a high school with students from grades one through twelve. The school produced its first graduates in 1897. The high school was discontinued in 1925 due to low enrollment, and African American students then attended Corydon High School. Grade school for African American children continued in the Summit Street school until 1950, after which all students were integrated into the town school. The Corydon school system continued to own the school building on Summit Street and, in 1953, began using it for overflow kindergarten and first-grade students. In 1973, the building was renamed the Grade School Annex and served students with special education needs. In 1986, the school corporation declared the building as surplus and sold the property.
Leora Brown School in Corydon, ca. 1967.
Professor William H. Fouse
Professor William H. Fouse was the first African American teacher to teach at Corydon’s school for African American children. The school was built in 1891, and Professor Fouse taught there from 1893 to 1904.
Leora Brown had the longest tenure as teacher of Corydon’s African American school. A graduate of the school herself, Brown started teaching in 1924 and continued until 1950 when the school was closed and all its students were integrated into the larger Corydon schools. The school system, however, did not renew Brown’s teaching contract. In the early 1990s, the schoolhouse on Summit Street was restored and renamed the Leora Brown School in honor of its beloved long-time teacher.
