With $200 in funding from the Jackson County Board of Supervisors and $500 raised by the community, the West Pascagoula Colored School (Gautier Colored School) was constructed in 1921 in the West Indies style. Ms. Ernestine Fountain taught approximately 22 students each year in this one room school house, which was heated by pot-belly stove. The school operated as an educational center for African-American children before closing in 1946, and the building was then used as a community center, senior citizen center and voting precinct. Situated in a city park, the building has been vacant since being acquired by the city of Gautier in the 1980s. The West Pascagoula Colored School is in remarkably good condition for having been vacant and neglected for over thirty years. The Gautier Historic and Preservation Commission is working with the city of Gautier to raise funds to restore the building for use as a local history museum. The building was designated as a Mississippi Landmark by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History on October 19, 2012 and was listed as one of the Ten Most Endangered Historic Places in Mississippi in 2013.
In July of 2016 restoration began thanks to the support of the City of Gautier and a grant received from a Community Heritage Preservation Grant from MDAH. The goal is to turn the structure into a Historic Schoolhouse and Cultural Museum that will showcase the history of a one-room school from the 1920s to the 1940s.
Address: 902 De La Pointe Drive
City: Gautier
County: Jackson
Accessibility: property under restoration; can be viewed from a vehicle.