The historic Woodville Rosenwald School in Gloucester will soon reopen its doors for cultural and educational programming, thanks to a highly successful fundraising campaign.

According to a press release from the Cook Foundation, the $75,000 matching grant the foundation established to pay for renovations to the interior of the school has been fully funded, with the Woodville Rosenwald Foundation raising an additional $75,000 from the community as a match.

“This is a testimony to the importance of their work,” Cook Foundation Executive Director Elizabeth Blackney said. “We’re deeply honored to invest in that important work.”

“I am thrilled every time I drive by the Woodville Rosenwald School and see the match thermometer climbing,” said Cook Foundation founder and president Dr. Adrianne Ryder Cook Joseph. “And now, I am heartened for the descendant community and for our wider community in Gloucester.”

Joseph went on to praise the “thought leadership” of Dr. Michael Blakey,...