The first plat shows a survey of the property as it existed in January 1951 - the frame school building (which dated from the 1890s) with its distinctive five-sided porch, a small frame lunch room off to one side, and a brick toilet building in the rear.
The opening of Elvie Street School left Sallie Barbour School obsolete, and the city made plans to sell off the property. After years of complaints about deteriorating conditions at the Sallie Barbour School, Wilson’s Board of Education finally constructed a new elementary school for African-American children in southeast Wilson.
