Recalling Fauquier County’s 100 schools
Photos by Hugh Kenny, PEC.
Built in 1904, Calverton High School had electricity and central heat, but no indoor plumbing. It was typical of the large White high schools built in communities around the county.
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By John T. Toler
ublic education in Fauquier County can be divided into three epochs: antebellum, the statewide post-Civil War efforts, and consolidation and desegregation. No records about public education in the early days of the county exist, but it’s clear it was generally insufficient. There was little state aid, which went only to the poorest families. Other options did exist for families who could afford them. The “old field school system” was used, where students were taught by teachers hired by their parents and taught in small schoolhouses on their estates. Often, children from neighboring farms attended. In 1870, Virginia adopted its first statewide system of free public schools, as provided in a new state constitution. As part of Reconstruction, the federal Freedmen’s Bureau established schools for African-American students, although most got their primary education in homes, churches and schools within the bounds of the local communities, according to the Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County (AAHA) in The Plains. The statewide system was well underway by 1871, but schools were segregated by race, and would be for years. By 1872, Fauquier had 40 school buildings serving 1,641 White students, and 17 schools for 887 Black students. The following year, enrollment increased to 3,847, taught in 59 White schools and 31 Black schools. In 1884 there were 93 schools, and by 1885, over 100. W. H. Strother was appointed superintendent of Fauquier County Public Schools in 1882. Four years later, he said nearly all of the schools had been “supplied with good furniture and have suitable grounds attached. We have some cause for congratulations, but there is yet room for great improvement.” One of the AAHA museum treasures is a copy of a 1936 report compiled by the Firemen’s Insurance Co. of Newark, New Jersey. It provides detailed information about the 43 White and 35 Black schools then in use in Fauquier County. Information includes year of construction, interior and exterior dimensions, materials used, and if they had electricity or indoor plumbing (most did not). Structure value was estimated, ranging from $400 for the Black school at Double Poplars near Warrenton to $119,000 for the new Warrenton High School for Whites completed in 1936. The staff at the AAHA has used the information in the report to write the histories of the Black schools, now online in the excellent Interactive Story Map on their Website (www.aahafauquier.org)
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Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2021
