In 1932, Jefferson Elementary was moved to a new, larger brick building erected at the southeast corner of South College and present-day Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The new school was funded through the federal Works Progress Administration.
It served White students across the entire south side of Fayetteville until Bates Elementary School opened in 1951.
Like other grade schools in Fayetteville, Jefferson Elementary was integrated in the 1960s, the last step in Fayetteville’s phased program of racial integration that had started with high school and worked its way down over a 10-year period.
As population shifts occurred by the early 21st century, the school district eventually converted the school to adult education classes and moved elementary-age students to Owl Creek and Happy Hollow schools.
The Fayetteville School District shifted teaching at the Jefferson School Building to its Adult Education Center, helping adult students gain targeted learning needed for certain jobs as well as getting students without a high school diploma up to speed for earning a high school equivalency diploma.
In 2023, the Fayetteville School District sold the building and grounds to Potter’s House, a local nonprofit that offers community programming and tries to connect nieghborhoods and communities across socioeconomic and cultural lines. Potter’s House paid $1.6 million for the property through a gift from a donor.
