- Yeah, back in the 1920s, this is what a rural African American school looked like here in Charlotte.

There was no electricity.

There was a fireplace for heat.

And there were kids of all ages, all learning together in one big room.

Now you can read about these schools in the history books.

You can see the pictures too.

Or you can come here to the Charlotte Museum of History and see the old Siloam School for yourself.

(nostalgic music) - Yeah, so right here what we're looking at is some handwriting on the wall here.

- [Jeff] Historian Nolan Dahm gives us an inside peek at the school that opened near Mallard Creek 100 years ago.

- And we know that there were lots and lots of children in here.

So whether it was an elementary student, you can just see somebody who came over this wall and practiced their ABCs right here.

- [Jeff] Memories from a century-old classroom, held together today by these temporary timbers for now.

- When the school was originally constructed, this would've been a bay of windows, large windows.

You can see the outlines there.

Huge windows here letting in a ton of natural light.

- [Jeff] But at least Siloam School is still standing.

- It was a big challenge.

- [Jeff] Fannie Flono is chairperson of the Committee to Save Siloam School, which is on the National Register of Historic Places despite being neglected for years, unprotected from trespassers and mostly affected by all of today's growth so close to the school's original 1920s location.

- That building sat in an area that was obscured from the public, was behind an apartment complex, and it was deteriorating every day.

And it was in danger of not only being destroyed by development, but also by the elements or anybody who come could come by and just light a match inside.

Having something on the national register is a good thing, but it doesn't guarantee that it's gonna be preserved.

So it could have been torn down at any time.

- [Jeff] Instead, the developer of nearly 200 acres surrounding Siloam School, Tribute Companies, offered to save the school by moving the school.

(compressor rumbling) And that's when the real work began.

- We hadn't done anything, but pick it straight up.

- [Jeff] Contractor Mickey Simmons and his crew underneath the school are using heavy-duty hydraulic jacks.

(compressor rumbling) How's it look for a hundred-year-old schoolhouse?

- I've moved worse.

(Jeff laughs) Lots worse.

It's pretty solid.

This is good wood compared to today's wood too.

Howard, I'm gonna bring you up just a hair more, buddy.

- [Jeff] To gently lift this century-old building- - [Howard] Wait, you wanna go up?

(compressor rumbling) You goin' up.

- [Jeff] off its century-old brick foundation.

(nostalgic music) (compressor rumbling) - We've got rough cut 2 by 10 pines.

This is all rough cut, Park Pine Sawmill lumber.

- [Howard] Whoa, right there.

- [Jeff] Those original floor joists supporting the school now resting on the back of a flatbed tractor trailer.

(truck rumbling) (air hissing) Creeping down a steep hill to begin the nine-mile trip to Siloam's new home.

(engine rumbling) Not during daylight, but after midnight (nostalgic music) (truck rumbling) before finally arriving here at the Charlotte Museum of History.

(truck rumbling) - And I gotta tell you, when this building was actually moved here, I breathed a sigh of relief because what was historic about it and what were the lessons that we could learn from a building like this about education of Black people back in those days, about the quest for equality, and how people of different backgrounds can come together and join forces to do something that is good for the community.

- [Jeff] Flono explains that back in the segregated 1920s, the county only paid for the school's land and its teachers.

Free blueprints for the school came from the Rosenwald Fund, which built rural African American schools all over the South.

But money for Siloam School came from the families in Mallard Creek's own black community, volunteering the materials and labor, too, for a school that really was built by them and for them, and also built to last.

- This building is great.

Not a lot of rot, not a lot of wood we need to replace.

Really good stuff and surprisingly so for a building that has essentially been abandoned for a few decades.

But in fact, this building has a an air pocket behind this wood that helps it breathe.

The wood expands and contracts, right.

- Historians restoring Siloam School say that's why they're following those original 1920 school blueprints today, keeping the wood, the paint and almost everything else original too.

- When you walk in, what would it have felt like to walk in 100 years ago?

If you want an answer to that question, it's gonna be right here.

And we're gonna show you why it's important to take care of buildings like this.

(nail gun bangs) And while workers prepare the Siloam School to tell its own story of education and segregation and restoration, Alfreda Barringer has stories too.

- Walking up the stairs, going inside be in a clean space.

I remember a kitchen and food and conversations and just feeling a lot of love like today how it makes me feel to see that it's still here.

- [Jeff] For Alfreda Barringer's family, Siloam wasn't just a school.

- That my uncle James Young was a student here at the school.

- Wow.

Siloam was also home sweet home.

- The schoolhouse that the family made a home.

My mother, Gertrude, actually lived in the house.

- [Jeff] These family photos show Alfreda on the right with her mother and brother and sister and her grandfather, Nelson Young, who bought Siloam School back in the '50s for $550, living there with his family until the '70s when Alfreda's uncle turned the old school into an auto repair shop.

An entire family tree with its roots in Siloam School.

- Not all of them lived in this building as a home.

But the tight-knit family that they were and that we still are is important.

The things and the lessons that they taught us, the kind of life that they lived and things that they wanted for their children, the values that they held.

I'm just really proud that my family had a role in saving this historic building, and I'm grateful for those lessons.

- Yeah, those family memories, the old photos and the schoolhouse itself, all combining together to remind us that even in a high-tech world like we live in today, we can still learn something about how it was 100 years ago.