Generations of Spring Lake students have walked through the doors of Lillian Black Elementary School. The two-story, brick, white-and-black-trimmed school has a distinctive cupola atop, and is located behind a cropping of trees, just east of busy N.C. 87/NC 210, as traffic whizzes into town past Fort Bragg.
The school was founded in 1938 — 13 years before the Spring Lake community was incorporated as a town and elected its first mayor.
Cumberland County Schools closed Lillian Black for good in 2022 because of maintenance issues and cost of repairs.
I had been wondering what was to became of the old building.
Well, the outlook is not particularly sunny at present. Tearing down the building altogether and using the land for something else is one option potentially on the table.
Lillian Black school in real bad shape
Cumberland County Manager Clarence Grier presented to the county Board of Commissioners at a May 8 meeting an April 28 letter from the school system offering for a second time to sell the building to the county or the Town of Spring Lake for the "fair market value price" of $750,000. The commissioners declined the offer last October, when both the school board and the Board of Commissioners had a few different people in the seats.
This time, the commissioners voted unanimously for Grier to reach out to the school system and Town of Spring Lake to see if some kind of deal might be reached. The manager said he would report back in June.
Meanwhile, he sketched out for the commissioners a profile of the building, based on an appraisal conducted a year-and-a-half ago, that made the school sound like it is in real bad shape. The appraisal said the property was worth $780,000, Grier said.
The county puts the current property value at $1.5 million, after this year’s revaluation, he said.
But the appraised value is in the land, he said.
As for the school itself?
“The building is basically a tear-down,” he said.
The Spring Lake school had high maintenance costs, and carries a bevy of critical problems
When Lillian Black last operated as a school, it’s maintenance costs ranged from $52,000 to $66,000 a year, Grier told the board.
The school building “needed a lot of work” and was “very dated and undermaintained,” the manager said. There were air quality issues, and the cafeteria was unsuitable for use.
He continued: “The electrical, mechanical and technology systems appear to be outdated, the ceiling height not conducive to climate control. Outdoor spaces are substandard.”
There are several code deficiencies, he said. The classrooms are significantly smaller than the right size, he said.
And: “The parking is a two-way private-public street and subject to unsafe conditions.”
Residential, commercial, light industrial ... but maybe no school building, could be in store
Grier said building something new in its place would make the most sense. He said it is zoned for R-6, which is a higher density residential zoning.
“The building itself would really have to be torn down and reconverted and reconstructed into either a different either commercial, residential or light industrial use,” he said.
A new building could house a church or school, the manager said. The appraiser found the “highest and best use” would be to raze the building and use the property for a multifamily development, he said.
Grier said if the county chose to move forward with purchasing the property, he would recommend "that we split it at least with the town of Spring Lake on an equitable basis."
Spring Lake Mayor Pro Tem Sona Cooper said on Tuesday she had not yet heard of any discussion between the town and county about Lillian Black but was going to check.
A school with a historic background but not the crucial designation to match
Lillian Black was formerly Spring Lake Elementary School and was named for Black, a schoolteacher, after her retirement in 1962. She taught fourth- and seventh-grade children in town for 46 years.
Although the school has a lot of history, it lacks any kind of state or federal historic designation that might save it from tear-down. When the Cumberland County Board of Education decided to close the school in 2022, its problem areas included equipment, interior finishes, electrical, HVAC, building exterior and roofing, according to school officials at the time. Lillian Black school students were reassigned from the school on South Third Street to W.T. Brown Elementary on Andrews Church Road, less than a mile away.
As as part of Spring Lake, Lillian Black was part of a Historical Architectural Survey of smaller communities around here that kicked off last year and is part of an Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund, managed by the National Park Service.
But there is typically a long and uncertain journey between these initial steps and preservation, and the old Lillian Black school may be out of time.