By Sarah Williams

Shiloh is an historically African American community inhabited since the late 1880s.

Older residents refer to this area as “New Shiloh.” Shiloh evolved and prospered around three cornerstones, its churches, its schools, and its people.

According to oral and church histories, Old Shiloh was located north of the Biltmore Estate. When George Vanderbilt bought the land for his mountain home, he moved the entire Shiloh community, including Shiloh Church and the church cemetery, to its current location.

In the early nineteen-twenties the first two-room school for African American students in Shiloh burned down. In 1927 a six-room elementary school was built on a five-acre site on Shiloh Road next to Shiloh Church. Public money built the school; and the Rosenwald Fund, founded by Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck & Company, made a large monetary contribution.

Shiloh Elementary School educated first-through-eighth-grade African American students from Shiloh, Brooklyn, Petersburg, Rock Hill, Arden, Concord, Fletcher, and Weaverville. The school graduated its last class in 1969. The school was also a meeting place for local clubs, athletic events, and theater productions. A decade after the school closed the city demolished the original Rosenwald building and replaced it with a structure that is now part of the Linwood Crump Shiloh Recreation Complex.

During the early years the residents of Shiloh worked on a variety of jobs ranging from domestic and custodial work, to teaching and dentistry. Still others developed professions providing services to others in the community such as midwifery, ministry, and storekeeping. Although the residents worked hard, they still found time to support activities for neighborhood children.

Deirdre Wiggins, a former Shiloh Elementary School student, stated, “As students living through segregation, we weren’t fully cognizant of the richness of cultural heritage that was inculcated in us during that time. The weaving of a curriculum centered on cultural ethos defined a sense of respect for our teachers, parents, and schoolmates. That respect yielded a wealth of uniqueness that cannot be sewn in any other venue.

Growing up and looking back on this time, we realize just how vast our blessings were — and are. Our older and more mature minds have recognized the strength of resolve, fortitude, and pride that fortune placed on each of us from living through that era. Along with the rekindling of comrade experiences, it is these things and more that we want to celebrate, honor and fondly remember during this reunion time.”

This reunion is organized in collaboration with Kenya Webster, Community Center Director of the Linwood Crump-Shiloh Complex. The community can help by sending names and contact information for former attendees of Shiloh Elementary School. Pictures of the school and its students are needed as well.

For more information about the reunion or for registration information, contact the Shiloh Reunion Committee, PO Box 7278, Asheville, NC 28802,
email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , by phone (828) 777-8337.

Members of the Linwood Crump-Shiloh Complex. 1st row (L-R): Kenya Webster, Center Director; Deirdre Wiggins, writer, historian; LaVerne Duncan; Lucy Hunter, secretary; Bernadette Thompson, recording secretary; Barbara Payne, and Joan Martinez. 2nd row: Allan Johnson, co-president; Ulysses Mills, co-president; Ronald Scott, Parliamentarian; Eric Foster, liaison to Shiloh Center; Dennis Hill, treasurer;  and George Holloway, sergeant-at-arms.