Recalling Fauquier County’s 100 schools

Recalling Fauquier County’s 100 schools

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.

Photos by Hugh Kenny, PEC.

By John T. Toler

Public 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)

The Morgantown School property was acquired by Dr. Sheila Johnson and donated to the AAHA. “We are working to preserve and interpret the property,” said AAHA Director Karen H. White.

The Morgantown School property was acquired by Dr. Sheila Johnson and donated to the AAHA. “We are working to preserve and interpret the property,” said AAHA Director Karen H. White.

There were White high schools in Upperville, Bristersburg, Calverton, Catlett, Marshall, Hume, Remington and Bealeton, but only one high school for Black students.

In 1930, the Rosenwald School – one of eight Black schools in the county partially funded by Julius Rosenwald – became a four-year high school for Black students living in Warrenton.

However, the only option for Black students from other parts of the county was to travel to Prince William County to attend the Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth. This changed in 1952 with the opening of William C. Taylor High School in Warrenton.

Starting in the 1940s, some of the one- and two-room Black schools were closed and sold at auction, usually because of falling enrollment. Others remained, but were changed from having two teachers to one.

The White high schools were consolidated into Marshall in the northern sector, Warrenton in the center, and Cedar-Lee at Bealeton in the south.

By the late 1950s, a multi-million dollar school consolidation plan was underway. The last small White school at Morrisville was closed in June 1960, and the last Black school, No. 18 at Marshall, closed in February 1964.

In the fall of 1963, students in the three White high schools were assigned to the new Fauquier High in Warrenton. In April 1966, seven closed schoolhouses were auctioned, including former high schools at Delaplane, Hume, The Plains, Remington and Bristersburg.

Under a second multi-million dollar school consolidation plan, elementary schools in the county’s northern end were consolidated into W. G. Coleman at Marshall (White) and Northwestern in Rectortown (Black). Central Elementary was opened in Warrenton and Southeastern at Calverton (both for Black students). White elementary school students were assigned to the new P.B. Smith and C. M. Bradley elementary schools.

Desegregation of Fauquier County Public Schools was done in fits and starts, beginning in the fall of 1965 when three Black students were assigned to Fauquier High.

Desegregation became a reality in 1969. As the population grew and demographics evolved, the old primary-secondary school arrangement was replaced by an elementary-middle-high school concept.

According to the FCPS Website, 11,287 students are currently enrolled in the three high schools, five middle schools and ten elementary schools, plus the alternative school at Southeastern.