Our Legacy Museum History

In 1927, the Fairmont community was created as the first neighborhood in Griffin, GA where African-American men and women could purchase a plot of land to build a home. Two years later, the Griffin-Spalding Board of Education purchased ten acres of land in Fairmont, on which the Rosenwald Fund supported the creation of a six-teacher type school for African-American children. The next 40 years witnessed an educational boom with two adjacent new buildings constructed in 1949 and the expansion of Fairmont High School into a new set of buildings in 1958. In the fall of 1970, Griffin-Spalding schools fully integrated, reducing the uses of the Rosenwald School building and adjacent structures. Over time, the school buildings fell into disrepair.

The discussion for site revitalization in Fairmont began as early as 2006, and in 2016, the residents of Spalding County passed a SPLOST directing funds toward that goal. The project culminated in the creation of Fairmont Vocational Heritage Park, which is anticipated to house a special events facility, a cultural arts center, and Our Legacy: The Griffin-Spalding African-American History Museum upon the park’s completion.

Our Legacy Museum will be housed within the 1929 Rosenwald School building. Construction on the museum commenced in May 2021, and it is expected to open to the public in 2024.