Category: 2025 Photography Challenges

John with the blog photobyjohnbo is the host for this week’s Lens-Artist Challenge and he is giving us an opportunity to choose our own Word which would be appropriate for our topic, sharing three to four photos that go along with our Word topic choice.

For John’s Pick-a-Word challenge this week I have chosen to use the word Historic. The Word Historic means that something is famous or important in history, for an example a historical site.

The Town of Cramerton, (which we currently reside in) has a couple of different Historic places within walking distance to our home. On Saturday, Coleman and I walked up the road and around a bend for approximately 0.9 miles to the Historic Baltimore School.

The Historic Baltimore Village sign is located at the beginning of the road leading to the Historic Baltimore School. The Historic Baltimore School is located at 575 Baltimore Drive in Cramerton, North Carolina. It was built by Stuart Cramer, in the late 1920’s for the children of African American men and women who worked in the Cramer Mills and Cramer’s Dairy Farm and Orchards. The intention of the school was to educate the African Americans and provide skills to navigate segregation.

The Baltimore Village School sits on a hill near the South Fork Catawba River. Inside the building are cracked windows covered by boards, an old refrigerator on one side of the room, and patches of peeling paint hanging off the roof.

The school has been closed for quite some time, but a former Cramerton resident stepped in to preserve its history. Former residents Fred Glenn and his wife, Ernestine Glenn purchased the school building with plans to renovate it. They bought it to prevent it from being burned to the ground by the city’s fire department which had planned to do a control burn.

However, knowing the Historic importance of the Baltimore Village School, the Glenn’s wanted to protect and preserve the school for generations to come to be able to learn about its history and significance to the community.

Mr. Glenn has stated that the Baltimore Village School, where his mother and Aunt attended in the 1930’s, was the heartbeat of the community. The school building provided an alternative to places off-limits to African Americans. Back during that particular time period, African Americans did not have the opportunity of going to a cinema, or any such facility or theatre. The school building became the theatre for the Baltimore Village Community. The school building was also used as a place of worship and later used as a community center.

The Glenn’s and the Board of Directors for the Baltimore Village School are currently still trying to raise enough funds for the restoration of the Historic school. Once enough funds are raised the money will be used to turn the building into a community center and a museum for people to learn about a critical piece of history in the small town of Cramerton.

Lens-Artists Challenge #338-Pick a Word

Natalie’s Public Art Challenge

Monday Window

Dan’s Thursday Doors

Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.

Cameras: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max and Canon EOS Rebel T3i with Canon EF-S55-250mm lens and Altura UV Filter attachment.

Location: Historic Baltimore School; Historic Baltimore Village; Cramerton, North Carolina, USA

God Bless. Tour an Historic Place. Learn about history not found in books. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.