Banneker School

Parkville
Platte County

The Banneker School, built in 1885, was the first African-American school constructed in Platte County. Students came from as far away as twenty miles to attend the one-room school house. It closed around 1905 when a two-room school was built nearby. The school fell into private hands and was converted into a home. In the 1980s, Mrs. Lucille Douglass purchased the property to save it from demolition and deeded it to the Platte County Historical and Genealogical Society. Money raised by this group funded some initial restoration work that returned the building to its original configuration. No work has occurred since the 1990s, and the building now faces threats from vandalism and deferred maintenance.