Zion Hill was established before the end of slavery and was originally known as South Elkhorn Bend and Lenerson before its name was changed. It became a prominent African American community with two stores, a church, and a post office, and Whitney M. Young, president of Lincoln Institute, a black boarding school, began his early education there. Zion Hill School was the site of one of the 158 Rosenwald Schools built in Kentucky between 1917 and 1932, and the one-room schoolhouse educated African American children who were required to attend segregated schools as part of a program that grew from Booker T. Washington's vision for educational reform and his partnership with Julius Rosenwald.