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<br /> NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No.1024-0016
<br /> (8-86)
<br /> United States Department of the Interior
<br /> National Park Service
<br /> National Register of Historic Places
<br /> Continuation Sheet
<br /> Section number 8 Page 23 North Carolina Industrial Home for Colored Girls
<br /> Orange County,NC
<br /> Although NCFCWC satisfied its indebtedness related to the Efland reformatory in 1943,the
<br /> organization's advocacy for an institution to serve African American girls did not cease. NCFCWC
<br /> president Lula Kelsey led the charge to build a new facility that culminated in a$25,000 state
<br /> legislative appropriation ratified in March 1943. The reformatory opened in September 1944 under the
<br /> direction of superintendent Mae D. Holmes in what had been the African American National Youth
<br /> Administration center on Albemarle Avenue in Rocky Mount. In July 1947,the correctional institute
<br /> relocated to the former Industrial Farm Colony for Women, a correctional center for white women
<br /> established in 1929 near Kinston. The site became North Carolina State Industrial School for Negro
<br /> Girls, also known as Dobbs School. The campus initially comprised two two-story,brick, Colonial
<br /> Revival-style dormitories erected in 1929 and 1930; a dining room; a kitchen; and several utility
<br /> buildings.57
<br /> By 1959,when eighty-nine young women were in residence, an administration/educational building, a
<br /> kitchen/cafeteria, and an additional residential cottage had been constructed. The former kitchen
<br /> housed the laundry and sewing room. NCFNWC donated almost$12,000 in proceeds from
<br /> NCIHCG's sale to Dobbs School to facilitate a chapel's construction. Fundraising continued for the
<br /> chapel,which had a projected cost of$200,000, into the 1970s.58 The campus currently functions as
<br /> Dobbs Youth Development Center, operated by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. The
<br /> institution provides up to forty-three residents with vocational training in automobile repair,
<br /> horticulture, and culinary arts.59
<br /> 57"Meeting an Acute Need," Winston-Salem Journal,March 30, 1942;"Women's Clubs Addressed by John R.
<br /> Larkins,"Pittsburgh Courier,May 15, 1943,p. 11;"Named as Supt.Of Delinquent Home," The Carolinian,July 29, 1944;
<br /> "Negro Girls' School Ready for Inmates,"News and Observer,September 29, 1944;Ruth G.Rush,"Tribute to Mrs.Lula
<br /> Kelsey,"Federation Journal,May 1, 1952,p.5;M.Ruth Little,Coastal Plain and Fancy(Winston-Salem:Jostens Printing
<br /> and Publishing, 1998),342-343.
<br /> 58"Address Delivered by Samuel E.Leonard,"Federation Journal,January 1954,pp. 1 and 9;"Dobbs Farm,"
<br /> Statesville Record and Landmark, September 14, 1954,p.4;Mae D.Holmes,"Training School,"Federation Journal,Fall
<br /> 1959,p.9;"Seek$200,000 Chapel Fund For Dobbs,"Pittsburgh Courier,November 1, 1969,p.5.
<br /> 59 North Carolina Department of Public Safety,"Youth Development Centers,"https://www2.ncdps.gov(accessed
<br /> July 2017).
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