Belmont students offer renovation ideas

(By Clint Confehr) LAWRENCEBURG, TN — Belmont University students have designed options for renovation of West Gaines School where Black children were educated here until desegregation nearly 60 years ago. Belmont University Architecture and Design College Professor Rebecca Moore — a 1990 Lawrence County High School graduate — says six of her students prepared several concepts for the West Gaines School Community Center Inc. (WGSCC), a non-profit group planning a community center.Belmont students propose a classroom area to be restored like a Rosenwald School classroom. The design students’ proposals also include: a time-line of the building’s history; a community area where the gymnasium is; a music studio; a computer lab; a catering kitchen; reconfiguration of rest rooms; and, restoration to meet building codes, Moore said.Belmont requires students to volunteer in community projects such as the WGSCC, the professor said. It’s to remind students that giving is important and mutually beneficial.Development of a community center would be a new use for the nearly 90-year-old building where African-American children were taught for nearly three decades.Before an April 23 gathering in St. John’s United Methodist Church — it’s on West Gains Street near the school — where the students’ were to display and...