After the Civil War, Bowling Green's west side became home to a growing number of the city's African Americans, many of whom owned property and worked to support their families, increasing the need for educational, religious, and social institutions. In 1886, Bethel Baptist Church called Dr. Henry Carpenter as pastor while it was located on West 10th Street, now Brown's Lock Road. Carpenter, a graduate of Simmons College of Louisville, purchased a lot at 517 West Main Street in the early 1890s and built a home for his family there. Seeing the lack of educational opportunities for African American children in the Delafield area and Warren County, he began conducting a school in the church building. As the congregation grew, it purchased a fine brick building around 1900 at 803 Church Street that had housed a mission of Bowling Green's First Baptist Church, and after moving there the church changed its name to New Bethel Baptist Church. Carpenter remained pastor until his death in 1927. After the congregation moved, he continued using the older structure for education, and in 1923 a new school was erected with local funds and a grant from the Julius Rosenwald Fund. Completed on July 16, 1923, it became known as the Carpenter School in recognition of his efforts as an educator. After his death, his daughter Clara Carpenter Cole became the school's principal. After World War II, Clara and her husband, Westerfield F. Cole, replaced the old Carpenter home and an adjacent shotgun structure with a new stone house, where they lived until the mid-1970s.