DAPHNE, Ala. — It’s a small, white building set off to the side and behind W. J. Carroll Intermediate School. It’s easy for motorists to miss as they travel along Main Street in Daphne.

But, a quick trip inside reveals that what is now the Black Education Museum chronicles an important part of Baldwin County’s history.

The simple wood frame building is all that is left of the Baldwin County Training School.

“In 1889, a group of churches, the Eastern Shore Missionary Baptist Society, purchased 18 acres of land,” said Gartrell Agee, the acting director of the facility.

The idea was to set up a school for black students. Education was not something young black children could easily receive at that time, and the school, first called the Eastern Shore Missionary Baptist Academy, filled that role.

The school was a boarding school as well for male and female students, as those from other parts of the county would have otherwise had to travel for hours to attend.

“It was the only place in the county where a black person could get a high school diploma,” said Agee.

The class roster for the 1921-1922 school year only show 15 students.

“In a good crop year, the students didn’t go to school,” said Agee. “They were needed at home.”

Bus transportation for black students was not provided until 1949, according to the school’s website, blogs.bcbe.org/bem/.

In all, the school was: 1889-Eastern Shore Missionary Baptist Academy; 1916-Eastern Shore Industrial School; 1927-Baldwin County Training School; 1970-Daphne Junior High School; 1989-Daphne Middle School; 1993-Daphne Intermediate School; 2004-Daphne Elementary South; and 2008-W.J. Carroll Intermediate School.

The place had been preserved for a while, but according to Agee, “It had gotten so hard for those old black people,” that the property was given to the Baldwin County Board of Education.

Agee knows the school well. She attended school there, and her name and those of her family can be found on the lists of students located in the main hallway.

“The perception of the time was that black students could only be trained (to do vocational work),” said Agee. But, she added, the school did become accredited and some of the graduates went on to college. Agee also attended college and became a teacher. In fact, she was one of the teachers who helped integrate Fairhope Elementary.

Pride of place in the office goes to a photo, letter and other memorabilia from Regina M. Benjamin, the Surgeon General of the United States. While Benjamin is best known for her work in Bayou La Batre, she did attend the Training School.

Doctors, lawyers and other professionals also called the training school “home” at one time, and displayed are photos of alumni who served in the United States military.

The school provided both academic and vocational education. Boys learned skills like masonry and agriculture, and girls learned home economics.

There weren’t washing machines at the time, so the students used tubs and washboards.

Agee says the museum is a treasure because it is important “to think of these old, black people who didn’t have very much, but saw the need for education. We don’t ever want that forgotten.”