Photo credit:
Daria Gasparini, 2025
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Delmar School
Inventory No.:
WI-692
Other Name(s):
Union Methodist Church Fellowship Hall
Date Listed:
1/5/2026
Location:
1203 Pine Street, Delmar, Wicomico County
Category:
Building
Period/Date of Construction:
1925-1975
Boundary Description:
The nominated property occupies the eastern 1.70 acres of Block 18 of the subdivision known as “Woodlawn” as recorded in plat book EAT 74, page 528, in the land records of Wicomico County.
The property is roughly 234 by 317 feet in size and is bound by Pine Street on the north, Walnut Street on the south, and private property on the east and west.
The boundary includes the building and the adjacent grounds historically associated with it during the period of significance as described in a deed dated March 3, 1925, and recorded in the
Wicomico County Land Records, book JCK 138, pages 111-12, and excludes that part of the original site now occupied by the Union Methodist Church building, completed in 1977.
Related Multiple Property Record:
Rosenwald Schools of Maryland
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Description:
The Delmar School is located on the grounds of Union Methodist Church at 1203 Pine Street in Delmar, a town situated along the Maryland-Delaware state line in northern Wicomico County.
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Significance:
The school was built in 1925 with a contribution from the Julius Rosenwald Fund and served as a public primary school for Delmar’s African American community for thirteen years until its
closure in 1938. Since 1942, it has functioned as a fellowship hall for Union, which uses it regularly for meetings and events that are integral to the church’s ministry. The building is one story tall and five bays wide with a front gable roof and a gabled front
projection. It is light frame construction on a continuous brick foundation. Exterior materials include asbestos siding and asphalt roofing. The design is based on the Julius Rosenwald Fund’s
“Community School Plan No. 2-C” for north- or south-facing, two-teacher schools. The interior originally featured two classrooms divided by movable partitions, an industrial room, and two
cloakrooms and was modified, possibly as early as 1942, to adapt the building for use as a fellowship hall.
The Delmar School is significant for its association with the Julius Rosenwald Fund program and for its relation to African American education in Wicomico County. Between 1917 and 1932, the Rosenwald Fund supported local efforts toward improving African American education by providing grants for the construction of public schools throughout the South. In Maryland, the Fund provided seed money for the construction of over 150 schools across the state. The Delmar School is one of six schools built in Wicomico County with funding assistance from the Rosenwald Fund and one of only three that remain today. The school provided free elementary education for African American children living in the town of Delmar from its opening in 1925 until it was closed in 1938. The Delmar School is also significant for its ongoing use by the Union Methodist Church of Delmar as a fellowship hall. Union has been an important anchor of African American life in the Delmar area since the early 1800s. Its members helped fund and operate the Delmar School, and, after the school was shuttered, Union purchased the building for use as a fellowship hall. The building immediately became a crucial component of the church’s ministry, and for over eighty years it has been used for weekly bible study, Sunday school classes, monthly meetings of the Ladies Aid Society and other church groups, annual Homecoming events, and for funeral and wedding receptions. The building is a notable example of a two-teacher school designed according to “Community School Plan No. 2-C” as published in the Rosenwald program’s Community School Plans, Bulletin No. 3. The school plans developed by the Rosenwald Fund sought to provide proper architecture to support the education of African American children and emphasized quality construction with high standards in the areas of lighting, ventilation, and sanitation. The Delmar School is the only remaining Rosenwald school of its type in the county.
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