School files include the accounts of the condition of the school in the early twentieth century. The wood-frame building was described as approximately 20 feet wide and 30 feet deep. The single-room school had about 20 desks and could accommodate up to 48 pupils. The nearest water source was about a quarter mile away, but two privies were on site. (The location of the privies is unknown.) During the first quarter of the twentieth century, the Good Luck Schoolhouse became overcrowded and the building was deteriorating. In 1922, two Rosenwald schools were constructed in the nearby communities of Fletchertown and Duckettsville and eased the burden placed on the school. As a result, attendance at the Good Luck Schoolhouse gradually declined. Poor grades and an attendance of only eight children forced the closure of the Good Luck Schoolhouse in 1935. The Board of Education transferred the students to the Normal School in Bowie. In 1939, the property was conveyed to Oscar T. and Delia E. Banner. Banner is responsible for adapting the Good Luck Schoolhouse for residential use. Banner, born in 1879, was a federal government employee, working as a blueprint gallery foreman. The building has not been occupied for many years.
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Western Star Lodge Site & Cemetery Brookland Road Historic site
In May 1889, two acres of land were purchased by Thomas Williams, Jr., Elias Harrison, George Hawkins, and William Jackson, Trustees of the Western Star Lodge, from Jane Beall, widow of Shadrack Beall, and their children. This parcel was located on the eastern side of the Bealls’ plantation. A building, known as the Good Samaritan Lodge, was constructed on the property shortly afterwards by the Western Star Lodge, a local benevolent society. Residents of the Brookland community conducted worship services in the lodge until Dorsey Chapel was built to the west in 1900. The cemetery was called the Brookland Community Cemetery before the church was built. Another one-acre parcel was purchased by the trustees in June 1903 for the cemetery from Margaret Ann Beall, daughter of Jane and Shadrack Beall. It is unknown what the lodge looked like or when it was demolished. Mrs. Beatrice Snowden of Glenn Dale furnished the following names of persons who are buried in the Dorsey Chapel Cemetery: Bell, Jackson, Plater, Snowden, and Barnes. The cemetery is still owned by the Trustees of Dorsey Chapel Methodist Church of Glenn Dale, Maryland and is still active. However, there are no cemetery records listing who is buried there. Cement markers in the shape of crosses at the cemetery.
100 BROOKLAND African-American Historic and Cultural Resources