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The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte">

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Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte"> Current News News Archives Family & Friends Links Home Page Mallard Creek School. Adapted from a Report by Ms. Patricia Ryckman The Mallard Creek School is located at 11400 Mallard Creek Road in Charlotte, N.C. Statement of Significance  The Mallard Creek Schoolhouse, built ca. 1920, is significant under National Register Criterion A in two areas: education and social history.  It was operated as a school (1920-1931), during a key transitional period in the development of public schools in Mecklenburg County, a period during which efforts to consolidate and improve educational standards were beginning to see results.  After the school closed, the building continued to serve as the focal point of a close-knit farming community under its new name, Mallard Creek Community House.  In near perfect original condition, the building stands as a tangible expression of the strong community ties that were the hallmark of rural southern culture in the first half of the 20th century.  Situated amid gently sloping fields and surrounded by woodland, the Mallard Creek Schoolhouse still retains the pastoral character of its earlier days.  From the outside, the building is in excellent condition with no visible alterations except the addition of electricity.  Inside, only minor alterations have been made and this lack of improvements has greatly enhanced the building’s significance as a landmark.  Although other Mecklenburg County schoolhouses survive from this period, none is so well suited to tell the story of early 20th century education in Mecklenburg County.  Local farmers built the Mallard Creek School to provide a better education for their children.  It was designed to replace three smaller schools in the area but it would serve the community for only twelve years before it too was closed in a consolidation plan.  The Mallard Creek School has special significance for Mecklenburg County because it is representative of a period of tremendous change and increasing sophistication in the administration of the public schools. Education was changing from a very local and personal experience to a more modern system with organized grades, certified teachers and standard textbooks.  Teachers at the Mallard Creek School had boarded with the families in the community and the school calendar was often adjusted to accommodate the cotton harvest.  At the new two-story Derita School, the atmosphere was very different.  Physical Description  Prominently situated on a hilltop with gently sloping fields on three sides, the four-room Mallard Creek Schoolhouse, ca. 1920, stands as one of the last and best preserved reminders of Mecklenburg County’s rural roots. The school was entirely built by volunteer labor and its simple, vernacular style reflects the ethos of a fast-disappearing rural southern lifestyle. The immediate setting is virtually unchanged since the first half of the 20th century when the building began its long service as the focal point of a close-knit community of farm families.  The building faces west, fronting on Mallard Creek Road, now paved with asphalt, but still featuring the narrow winding curves of a road which originally served to bring farm wagons to market.  The fields comprising the five-acre tract are dotted with mature oak, poplar and pine trees and are framed on three sides by a mixed pine and hardwood forest.  Down the hill to the north, Stony Creek winds undisturbed through the woodland towards its junction with Mallard Creek, the prominent feature for which the community is named.  The view from the front porch of the schoolhouse is still primarily pastoral. Only the steady stream of cars along Mallard Creek Road hints at the extensive development taking place just out of sight.  New subdivisions are rising both north and south along the road and orange barrels just to the south of the tract signal a road-widening project. The schoolhouse site is threatened by the rapid suburban growth overtaking the area.  Sharing the site with the schoolhouse is a collection of wood, cinderblock and screen buildings associated with the annual barbecue conducted on the site.  These buildings, constructed in the 1950s to 1980s, replaced earlier, similar buildings used for the same purpose.  Two buildings with large screened extensions provide space for heating and serving food.  The three smaller structures are a restroom facility, a well house and a ticket booth.   The site is ringed by a faint dirt and gravel road used only once a year during the barbecue event.  To the south of the schoolhouse, near the road, is a dirt and gravel parking area which is in more regular use.  Scattered through the fields surrounding the site are numerous light poles set at jaunty angles.  A large painted plywood sign at the southwest corner of the site proclaims its fame:  “Home of the Annual Mallard Creek Presbyterian Church B*B*Q 4th Thursday in October.”  The Mallard Creek Schoolhouse, built ca. 1920, is a one-story weatherboard frame structure in very good original condition.  Two dominant features combine to provide its distinctive look:  a sharply pitched pyramidal hipped roof and perfectly symmetrical front and rear façades.   The extremely steep standing-seam metal roof gives the building a stature well beyond its actual size. It is pierced at the center of its ridge by two corbelled brick interior chimneys and the ends of the rafters are left exposed underneath, providing a decorative effect.  According to a former student, a bell was originally installed at the peak of the roof and used to call students into class (Garrison Interview).  A shed-roofed porch covers the center third of the front of the building. Four plain columns with roughly finished plinths support the standing-seam metal roof of the porch.  The plank porch floor is four feet above the ground but stairs, which must have once provided access, are now missing.  The double front doors are paneled and slightly mismatched.  The right-hand door features molding, dentil details and original hardware, none of which is seen on the left-hand door.  A prominent feature of the front façade is the two banks of five tall windows flanking the porch. The windows are equipped with original hinged weatherboard shutters which completely cover the windows.  The rear of the building, facing east, mirrors the front of the building with its double doors and banks of windows.  The double doors here, though, are very plain with diagonal reinforcing boards.  Three wide wooden steps with hand railings provide access to this entrance.  The south façade has a single off-center door with two wooden steps and the north façade has no doors or windows interrupting its expanse of weatherboard siding.  The building is supported by 14 inch joists of heart pine resting on brick piers (Oehler Interview #1). Although a number of changes have taken place in the interior of the schoolhouse, the original design and detailing is clearly evident throughout.  The front and rear doors lead into a wide central hall spanning the entire building.  The walls are plaster with wainscoting installed on the lower portion.  The width of the hall and the very high ceiling of approximately twelve feet combine to give the hallway the presence and character of a room.  The original floor plan, which included two classrooms on the north side of the building and a double classroom on the south side, has been maintained.  In the 1930s, a movable blackboard which was used to create two rooms on the south side of the building was removed (Garrison Interview). Of the four original classrooms, the northwest room is closest to its original condition. The large square room seems very spacious with its lofty board ceiling.  As in the hallway, the walls are plastered and feature original wainscoting below.  A single-paned transom light tops the horizontally paneled door.  Just inside the door and to the right is a small closet lined with rough board shelves which may have served for the storage of school supplies.  Markings on the south wall indicate the probable position of a blackboard.  Of the five large windows on the west wall, only two are complete with the original six over six double-hung sash units.  Each room is accessible from the central hall and the two smaller rooms on the north side have a connecting door.  In the interior corners of each room are chimney flues with holes high on the walls for the stovepipes. The original woodburning stoves have been removed and an oil forced air system is now used for heat in the large south room and the northeast room.  These two rooms have been further altered with dropped ceilings of acoustical tile. They do retain their original wainscoting, however.  Some church members recall hearing that the schoolhouse was built using a “northern” design, and cite the steeply pitched roof as being appropriate for shedding snow in a more northern location (Oehler Interview #1).  Others note the fact that the roof is similar to those of earlier schools in the area, such as the Rockwell School, located nearby on Eastfield Road (Johnston Interview).   Although the Mallard Creek School was built for the use of white children it incorporates many of the design features common to Rosenwald school plans. Rosenwald schools were not erected in Charlotte until 1919 but appeared elsewhere in North Carolina as early as 1913.  Features such as the banks of tall windows, the east/west orientation, the moveable partition and the central hall at the Mallard Creek School were all trademarks of Rosenwald buildings (Hanchett, 1987; Smith 1924).  The Mallard Creek Schoolhouse is also highly significant as a symbol of rural southern culture.  When the school closed in 1931, it was purchased by the Mallard Creek Presbyterian Church which had already been using the larger classroom for various activities after school hours(County School Board Minutes, May 22, 1931).  The building soon became a center for social and sports events for the whole community, as well as for church-related functions.  Today it is known nationally as the home of the Mallard Creek Barbecue, an annual event for the past 70 years that combines four traditional southern favorites:  religion, politics, family and food (Associated Press, October 23, 1998; Southern Living, October, 1999).  Historical Background  By the beginning of the 20th century, the Mallard Creek area, in eastern central Mecklenburg County, was a well-established farming community.  The area had been settled primarily by Scotch-Irish families, staunch Presbyterians who valued education (Blythe 1961).  The settlers erected a simple log structure in 1824, the Mallard Creek Meeting House, to serve their religious needs (Schmidt 1994).  By 1856 they had replaced it with a handsome brick sanctuary and were ready to turn their attention to a school building for their children.   The first Mallard Creek School was built in 1875 at the site of the present Mallard Creek Presbyterian Church (Hanchett 1987).  Probably a one-room schoolhouse, it was soon joined by other small schools in the area, notably the Oehler School and the Union School.  As the community grew these three schools became crowded and a new larger school was needed.  In the long-standing tradition of rural communities, the men of the church worked together to build it, donating the logs and the land to build on, .  The menfolk of nine families worked on the schoolhouse:  the Binghams, the Crenshaws, the Oehlers,, the Galloways, the Alexanders, the McLaughlins, the Johnstons, the Christenburys and the Cochrans. All of these men were farmers and members of the Mallard Creek Presbyterian Church. Most of these families had been living in the community for generations (Schmidt 1994; 1920 Census).  In charge of the project were Mack Johnston and Mack Benfield, described as “jack-leg” carpenters (Oehler Interview). Indeed, the 1920 Census lists their occupations as farmer and drayman respectively so their carpentry skills may have been somewhat limited.  Oral tradition holds that the school was built in 1917 but evidence in the Mecklenburg County Board of Education Minute Books indicates a more likely date of 1920. At their August 2, 1920 meeting the Board accepted a donation of land from the Crenshaw and Cochrane families for the new school.  The next month they endorsed an application from the Mallard Creek community to the State Department for $1500 to be used in partial payment of the new school and also sold the old Mallard Creek and Oehler schools.  Apparently the school was ready for use by the start of the fall term and students who had previously attended the Oehler, Union and old Mallard Creek schools moved in.  The new school would have seemed spacious to students coming from one-room schoolhouses.  It featured four large, high-ceilinged classrooms and a moveable blackboard partition which could be raised to create a large auditorium.  Wood-burning stoves sat in the corners of each room and an outhouse was provided for the girls.  The boys used the woods (Oehler Interview #1).  As was customary at the time, the teachers employed for the school were usually young and unmarried and often boarded with a family in the community. The school served students up to the 10th grade until 1926 when the Board limited the school to seven grades.  This signaled the beginning of the end for the Mallard Creek School.  New and bigger schools were opening in Derita and Newell and school buses allowed the larger buildings to serve widely scattered students.  By 1931, after only eleven years of service, the school was closed.  The families who had worked together to build the schoolhouse had remained involved in it over the years.  Church picnics and baseball games were conducted on the grounds and the auditorium was used for a variety of events. Church members even purchased a piano to be kept at the school for all to share.  It was natural for the Mallard Creek Church to bid on the schoolhouse when it was offered for sale by the School Board.  The Church’s bid of $250.00 was accepted and they immediately changed the name to Mallard Creek Community House. Church members had begun their tradition of an annual barbecue on the school grounds in 1929.  To meet payments on an addition to the church, a public barbecue was scheduled.  The event, which featured 3 pigs and a goat, was a success and soon expanded to serve hundreds each October. With church members donating the hogs and produce from their gardens and local companies donating bread and rice, the church was able to realize excellent profits.  Over the years most of the capital improvements at the church have been funded with barbecue funds (Chochran and Oehler, 1979). Bibliography  Blythe, LeGette and Brockmann, Charles.  Hornets’ Nest, The Story of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.  Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, 1961.  Census of Population, 1920. Washington, Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.  Cochrane, Marie and Esther Oehler.  Mallard Creek Bar-B-Cue – 50 Years.  (1979) Unpublished manuscript in the Mallard Creek Presbyterian Heritage Room.  Doyle, Karen.  “The Mallard Creek Bar-B-Cue,” Southern Living Magazine, October 1999, pp. 36-41.  Garrison, Alex.  Interviewed by Pat Ryckman (May 7, 2000)  Hanchett, Thomas W.  The Rosenwald Schools of Mecklenburg County. Charlotte –Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission, 1987.  http://www.cmhpf.org/S&RR/McClintockNewellRosen.html  Johnston, Dr. Harvey.  Interviewed by Pat Ryckman (May 2, 2000)  Macenka, Joe.  “Edwards, Faircloth Meet – Briefly – on the Campaign Trail.”  Associated Press, October 23, 1998.  Mecklenburg County (N.C.) Board of Education Minute Books, volumes 4-7 (July 5, 1915 – June 9, 1934).  UNC Charlotte Special Collections.  Oehler, J. Mack.  Interviewed by Pat Ryckman (March 21, 2000 and April 4, 2000)  Schmidt, Jennifer, ed.  1850 Census of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.  Olde Mecklenburg Genealogical Society, 1994.  Smith, S. L.  Community School Plans, Rosenwald Fund Bulletin Number 3.  Nashville:  Julius Rosenwald Fund, 1924.   Return To Final Report Summary Return To Home Page