Skip to main content

School Days in Annandale

From the Annandale Recorder, Volume 1, Number 2, 1 September 1955, comes a look back at a flurry of building activity in local schools.

Newcomers to Annandale will hardly remember the tenseness of the school situation a few years ago, when Quonset huts with their inadequate space and heating accommodations, half-day sessions, long and wearying bus rides, rented rooms in neighboring churches, and inadequate recreational equipment were the lot of the children of this community.


Quonset huts (pictured in the lower image from the Annandale Reporter) were an invention of the World War II era, when the U.S. Navy needed cheap, lightweight, and easily assembled structures. Instead of trailers, as we might expect to see during a school renovation today, these half-round, corrugated metal buildings were the closest option to pre-fab classrooms available at the time. After the war, the remaining buildings, declared military surplus, found another temporary life serving schoolchildren in Fairfax County as temporary learning centers.

The article goes on to state that, by the end of 1955, eight elementary schools would be in operation: "Annandale, Belvedere, Lincolnia, Masonville, Wakefield Forest, Weyanoke, Woodburn, James Lee, and Luther Jackson." Another new school "is planned for colored students, to be called the Lillian Carey School," and was expected to open in 1956. Although the image quality in the newspaper is not the best, the school pictured in the top insert may be either the Annandale Elementary School or the Masonville Elementary School.

🏫 Looking at the list of elementary schools in Fairfax County, the count as of January 2024 is 142. From this list, it appears Belvedere, Wakefield Forest, Weyanoke, and Woodburn are still in use as elementary schools. What happened to the other buildings? FCPS has done an amazing job highlighting the history of their closed schools:

  • Annandale: The building still exists and is in use as ACCA Child Development Center.
  • Lincolnia: The building still exists, but in 1983 the property was declared surplus. It has been repurposed into a senior center.
  • Masonville: The original school of this name was partially destroyed by fire, and the remainder of the building was demolished. The site is now in use as Mason Crest Elementary School.
  • James Lee: The building went through several phases of use, including time as overflow classrooms and administrative offices, before its current use as a community center.
  • Luther Jackson: This building still exists, and was included in the original list perhaps through confusion or its use as overflow classrooms. The building was a high school at the time of the article. Today, it is the Luther Jackson Middle School.
  • Lillian Carey: This school still exists. Today, the building goes by the name Bailey's Community Center.

Enjoy these posts? Support me on Ko-fi.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Dog-Eating Monsters from the Great Dismal Swamp

In the early 1900s, reports of animals - primarily dogs - being killed by an unknown creature around Suffolk and Norfolk were attributed to a nebulous Great Dismal Swamp Monster. The first wave took place in 1902, with stories originating in Suffolk. The Times printed a story that ran one day earlier in the local paper of a strange creature that has been attacking people and dogs around Nansemond in February of 1902: The Strange Monster That Eats Dogs in Nansemond. (Special Dispatch to The Times.) The strange Dismal Swamp monster, which one day this week killed seven of Ed. Smith's dogs, ate two of them, and later attacked Mr. Smith, himself, has been seen again. Mr. Smith lives about twelve miles from Suffolk. Last night L. Frank Ames, a merchant, who lives near Bennett's Creek, saw the same thing and suffered from its ravages. Hearing a strange noise, Mr. Ames went out with a pistol. He thought at first it was a strange dog. When he learned it was the much-sought monster Mr....
Post a Comment
Read more

Halloween Clip Art, 1921

As a fun Halloween bonus, here are some clip art images from the Richmond Times Dispatch, Oct. 28, 1921 . These images should all be in the public domain due to their age, so feel free to use and adapt them. Larger versions should be available if you click on them. I did not completely "pretty them up," as I often like the old stamp look in my vintage clip art. If you enjoy them or use them, please drop a little something in my Ko-fi jar to compensate the time it took me to find, crop, and clean them up! "Halloween" text Black cat and pumpkin with text "Halloween fancies!" Sitting black cat, head-on Black cat, bat, and pumpkin, with text "05 - OCT - 21" Cat with arched back and raised tail Owl on a branch with bats in the background Black owl with large eyes Jack-o-lantern A ghost, black cat, and candle, with a crescent moon and stars A person looking scared or surprised A man and woman dressed for a costume ball A witch with a broom A witch and...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Song of the Type

While correcting a local newspaper, I took a break from the endless news of Civil War pardons to switch to the Poet's Corner and peruse the offering of the day. The poem selected for the Winchester News of August 18, 1865 is an ode to the printing press as a means to redress wrongs (fitting for a newspaper still stinging over the recent Confederate defeat). The poem, in its entirety, runs thus: Song of the Type Click, click, click,  List to the Song of the Type,  Now breathing as soft and as light,  As a sigh from the heart’s first emotion,  Now swelling in grandeur and might  As billows that roll on the ocean.  Far reaching, eternal, its tones,  From its clime where the ice-mountains shine  Are borne over earth’s ample zones  To the land of the myrtle and vine. Click, click, click,  List to the Song of the Type,  To the nations down-trodden, oppressed,  It speaks like the voice of a God,  Of the wrongs of the people redr...
Post a Comment
Read more