Recent Reads: "The Battle for Loudoun County: Inside the Culture War Between a "Woke" School Board and the Radical Right in America's Wealthiest Suburb"

This blog mostly focuses on the history of the school buildings, rather than the bureaucracy, attendance zone fights, and other antics that goes on daily in Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS). This is probably for the best. However, it's not every day a book comes out to discuss an insider perspective on the school system's operation. Enter Wayde B. Byard in The Battle for Loudoun County: Inside the Culture War Between a "Woke" School Board and the Radical Right in America's Wealthiest Suburb. 

Byard served as LCPS' Public Information Officer for over 20 years. During his tenure, he became a mini-celebrity known for his deadpan recorded messages sent out when school was cancelled/delayed due to snow. The book covers his last few years in that role, 2021-2023. After progressive policies pushes the school system into the politicized national spotlight, two sexual assaults at different schools with the same perpetrator launches a right-wing special grand jury investigation. Their findings lead to Byard indicted for an alleged cover-up, placing him on leave without pay. In his memoir, Byard takes you moment-by-moment, from school board meetings at the Administration Building to the defense table at his trial. 

Byard serves as an opinionated narrator, giving the facts of what happened, but also all the tidbits and his opinions about everyone involved. There are some hot takes, and sometimes I wish he shared a little less. But can I blame him? He is a man who (spoiler alert) is acquitted, has retired, and has nothing professionally to lose anymore. But between his over-honesty and a situation that goes from bad to worse, it's an intoxicating read. 

While mainly a story covering terrible circumstances, it's also a story of how Byard rallies his spirits in his hardest moments, like spending time with his young grandson, and cherishing the friends and family that stuck with him through it. After the last few years we have all collectively had, I definitely related to him finding those little things that made him happy/at peace when surrounded by so much uncertainty and worry.

Do I believe his side of the story? Yes. He presents his case very factually and logically. He has his opinions, yes, but he also goes over a lot of concrete material and sources, and it's clear what is fact and what is opinion. And in the end, he was proven not guilty by a jury! I may have some confirmation bias, but his innocence in this matter felt well-supported and secure.

The Battle for Loudoun County is an entertaining read, a fable for how today's political climate can upend anyone's life. It's unfortunately an ever-increasing common occurrence. Check it out! It can be found in bookstores and online.

Union Street School Sees Possible Re-Use

Union Street School in Leesburg, Virginia

I love preservation and the re-use of sites. I also love the Union Street School in Leesburg.

So when I read in the LoudounNow that Alumni May Revive Former Union Street School, I got very, very excited.

I hope they are successful, it's a beautiful site that needs some love.



See & Read my Adventure into the Union Street School Here

Interesting Odds and Ends

"Horace Mann" greets me every morning to work!

 
 Over the past two summers, I've managed to find a lot of notable gems throughout old files, boxes, and right in front of me. Here are some of my favorites:

• "Horace Mann," painted by Elaine Nunnally in 2005 for the Horsing Around Loudoun public art project, is probably the most public of the odds-and-ends here. It featured all the schools in the county at the time (68 schools in 2005. Seven years later, there are now 82!). Schools were grouped by their 2005 school clusters. There's a couple of dirt patches on the top saying "Under Construction." I believe the space is only an allusion to the fact of LCPS's continuing fast growth, not a space to update the horse in the future. Horsing Around Loudoun was a similar project to the Cow Parade.

• The Office of Support Services gets copies of facility use forms for their files. It was quite exciting to see the "Obama for America" LCHS rally one.

• In construction files, there were some blueprints for an Islamic Saudi Academy campus. It was dated late 90's. This was not being planned by LCPS but a group that had two campuses in Fairfax County. A quick google search led me to this article from 2004. Apparently, the Academy decided not to use the land, and it was sold to the county with schools in mind. According to this Washington Post article preview, the site would have been in Ashburn on Farmwell Road. Currently, there are only warehouses near/on the property. Broad Run HS is unrelatedly close by the site.

• I've collected many hats working here:
  
  
  

  
  

     The hat on the left is a regular hat. The hat on the right is almost a regular hat, except it also has a built-in flashlight under the bill of the hat! The center hat is a marching band hat from Park View HS. They recently got new uniforms, so the old ones were auctioned away. I was the only person there who knew what the different uniform pieces were (I have four years of high school marching band under my belt), so I really helped them out. We found 119 hats and plumes the first time, but after the auction, they found an extra hat, and you can't really sell one hat by itself, so it was given to me.

• While going through possible auction items, a CD Player had a CD in it. Testing the CD Player out with it, I realized this CD had all the songs that were played during my Elementary School P.E. class. What a blast to the past!

• This mug:
  

• There was a report on Round Hill Elementary School (Now the Round Hill Center/Support Facility) and the reasons why they decided to get tear down the original 1911 wing of the building. I don't remember exactly what it said, but it made sense and I appreciated the justification.

• High School Prototype Poster:
  

  

  In my cubicle from last year

  
  This was hanging in the old Douglass Support Facility. Between when the Fire and Rescue Squad practiced on the building (breaking holes through walls and ceilings) and the start of demolition, I saved this. Good thing too, because the next day it rained. The paper was very frail, so I had it laminated. It has proudly hung in my cubicle for two summers now. As you can see, it's a very wide poster. It doesn't match any school in particular, but I've been told it was printed before Stone Bridge HS.

• And, probably my favorite find, Stage Curtain Samples for the 1939 Arcola School.
  
  

  

  Regrettably the only picture I have is of the folder it was in.
  I was too in awe to remember to take any pictures of the samples.

   These were small curtain sample squares sent to Superintendent O.L. Emerick to pick out the curtain color. Now that duty would fall to the construction department; it just shows you how small the school system was. There were many different colors to choose from and at least three companies sent samples. I don't know which curtain sample was chosen. I didn't find this in any other school file, so for it to last as long as it had was quite impressive.

   As a final of final favorites, I have been lucky to have the opportunity to work with many wonderful gems of coworkers these last two years. They all work hard and do their jobs pretty well (as far as I know). But it wasn't all stiff and serious, I have many fine memories of small pranks and jokes. As much as some of them might not believe it, I enjoy all the unique personalities and will miss them.

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

   This is my last week on the job. I do have a couple more posts I will be working on, so they will come out for the next few weeks (hopefully). This week will be more me-personal history stuff.

Update: Whoops!

Locked out!! (Emerick Elementary School)

   So I've been gone for a week! Lots of work happened last week (and jet lag), so I didn't have much time. Last week I was transcribing four of the interviews done so far. When I wasn't doing that, I was helping out filming at this year's new teacher orientation.

   Regarding transcribing, It's amazing, you know, all the ticks people have, you know. All the umms and unintentional word repeating, thinking of what to say next. I think that's really interesting. But if I could describe transcribing in one word, it would be 'Painful.' It's hard, and people can talk really fast. I go half speed and I still have trouble keeping up. And with talking, you don't have to follow perfect sentence structure, so you can never predict what people will say. I have full sympathy for transcribers for the TV. It's tedious and it feels like it never ends.

I will be back with new articles this week!

Union Street School

What do you call a school with at least six different names?

Let's count the ways:
Loudoun Training School
Leesburg Training School
Loudoun County High School
Douglass Elementary School
Loudoun County Training School
Leesburg Industrial School

   I myself have given it a few more nicknames, calling it The white Black School on Union Street, or just plain Union Street.
   It's a headache, so say the least. (For this blog's purposes, I'm going to call it Union Street)

   Welcome to Union Street. In 1962, a brick admin building was built on the property, but before that, it was the site of Leesburg's black school. Let's first walk around the site.

The one story wing was built at a later date, I don't know when.

Only the windows on the front aren't boarded up.

The backyard, sporting great views of the cemetery

   Union Street was built approximately 1884. A Training School (as one of its names) was a derogatory term applied to black schools, saying it wasn't really a school but a training school, not in the same league as a white school. It was Loudoun's only black school that taught secondary education when it began offering the level in the 1910's (which is probably around the time it received the name Loudoun County High School. How does it compare with the originally white-only Loudoun County High School of 1954?)

   The building had no indoor bathrooms. There was an outhouse (now demolished). There was no cafeteria, no auditorium, and no library. It housed five classrooms. Its school equipment, especially for science, was lacking. The school was also a death trap.

"...the window opening on the fire escape does not even have sash cords, and the oil soaked floor and open oil drum under the steps leading to the second floor constitute a veritable death trap in case of fire."
                                      - Charles H. Houston letter to Superintendent Emerick, 3/16/1940

   The parents pushed and pushed for a new school. When Douglass HS opened in 1941, the high school students moved out...but the elementary school students stayed. Union Street was renamed Douglass ES. The conditions did not improve. In 1958, when the new Douglass ES was built, this facility finally closed as a school.

   For a few years, it was used by the National Guard, during which time toilets were installed in the basement. I don't know when they moved out or much about what Union Street was used for afterwards. Currently, the building is mostly empty, being used for a little bit of storage.

   One of my goals this summer working here was to get into this building. And it happened! Would you like to take a look inside?

Look! Electricity! It has life!

The Basement bathroom

Storage of old things

It was surprisingly clean in this room

Old Lights

   On the second floor:

A close-up on the door: "A little shove will do it"

   And, the lovely staircase:

   I like it. It's sad to see it like this. I wish a use could be found for this. It's sort of away from the epicenter of downtown Leesburg, so it's not in the best spot in the world (plus, it's next to the cemetery, that's always a bonus, right?). It would need a big renovation if it was ever to be used publicly again. I know what I'd do with it. Why not turn it into a LCPS history museum and offices? Blue sky idea, but it's historic enough and it doesn't have to be big.

   In 2003 during a school board meeting, it was recommended to give future consideration to Union Street in a "lease agreement to the County of Loudoun or Town of Leesburg for governmental/historic use." I don't know what was said or what actions were taken; or it is possible nothing happened, that it was forgotten about. The building sits.

   Geraline Johnson (a Union Street teacher who is still alive) said in a recent interview about Douglass ES (1958) that she would like if the building was used like the Second Street one-room schoolhouse in Waterford, a place where children could learn how school used to be and about segregation. Unlike one room schoolhouses, Union Street has five rooms, which could give it multiple uses.

   So if you have a couple of million of dollars to spare...
What would you do with Union Street?


Sources:
Geraline J Johnson interview (2011) for Frederick Douglass ES
Douglass HS 50th Anniversary booklet (1991)
"Piedmont Stories: Leesburg Teacher's Career Spanned Two Eras" from the Washington Post, 9/20/2009
"High Schools Once Flourished Across Area"  - Eugene Scheel, Washington Post, 9/21/2003
Charles H. Houston letter to Superintendent Emerick, 3/16/1940

A special thank you to Sara Howard O'Brien!!

Leesburg High School / North Street

   This story starts with the Leesburg Academy. The Leesburg Academy was an all-boy's private school that started in 1779. When they gave their Academy building to the Loudoun County (still standing, now part of the Court building complex), they built a new 3 story school building in 1873. Due to public education (started in Virginia in 1870) being offered, the Academy did not do very well, so in 1879, they allowed their building to be used for public schools. (It was finally deeded to LCPS in 1914).

   In 1893, the academy building burned down. The exterior walls were left standing, so it was rebuilt, but its height was reduced to two stories. The school soon became overcrowded, so it later expanded. In 1909, along with the Waterford and Lincoln schools, Leesburg became a four-year state accredited high school, the first three in Loudoun County.

   The school building became even more crowded, having to house its ninth teacher in another building. A campaign was created to push for a new school. In 1923, the old school building was demolished to build a brand new, two-story building (not including the basement). Unfortunately, two years later, the school was destroyed by a fire on February 2, 1925. It was believed to have started from the furnace area. School continued in temporary locations until the present building opened January 25, 1926. It was built with only one story (not including the basement level) to make it "practically fireproof." As a testament to that, it has not burned down since.
 

Historic main entrance to the building

   Leesburg's high school was finally living a much more peaceful life. As with all of Loudoun's regional high schools, it served children of all grades. In 1941, it received its first expansion. The wing behind the Auditorium was added, changing the school's shape from a lower case "h" to a capital "H".

  Leesburg lost its high school status with the opening of Loudoun County High School in 1954. It then became a elementary school, serving grades Kindergarten through 7th grade. A 1962 expansion built a new kitchen, but otherwise, Leesburg had a relatively uneventful 17 years.
 

   In 1971, the building ceased being used as a school altogether. It became the School Board Annex Building. Starting in the 90's it received the nickname "North Street," after the road in which the building was located on. The original front doors (only accessible by stairs) were sealed shut, and became a decorative feature. The superintendent's office was located in the room where the 1962 kitchen was previously.

Plaque honoring the building's school history

   As the school system grew, North Street did not. The building became very cramped for its tenants. School Administration was also scattered among three other main facilities: Douglass Support Facility, Union Street Admin Facility, and the Round Hill Center.

   In 2005, the Admin Building on Education Court in Ashburn opened up. Administration vacated the building for their new, roomier premises. That same year, voters approved a bond to convert Leesburg into a Senior Center.

Far side of the building.
Auditorium is in the taller section on the right.

This brings us up to the present. The building's interior was gutted mostly throughout 2010, and now the Center is getting ready for to open up this fall. (I always get a chuckle, thinking the same people who graduated there as seniors are now coming back to use it as seniors again!)

Auditorium (July 30, 2010)

   I've watched what they have been doing for the past year, and they have been doing a great job, both overall and history-wise. While they're getting rid of the old stage for more room, they are incorporating the proscenium arch. They also got rid of the windows that were there and are now going with windows that look like the original windows!

Before (July 22, 2010)

After (June 17, 2011)

   They are doing a wonderful job. I could not be happier with what they are doing. They are rejuvenating the building while keeping its history. It is the renovation any old school should get. It really means something to history-lovers and the people who went there. My college (Christopher Newport University) has demolished so much of its 1960's buildings for new ones that most people consider the school to be a newly-formed one. I truly wonder how the college's alumni feels.

   When Leesburg Senior Center opens this fall, please swing by North Street and visit. It's going to be wonderful...

   For more information on the building's recent transformation, check out the Talk Loudoun: School Spirit article on the renovation.

Update: In 2012, I was able to look around the newly opened Senior Center of Leesburg -- check it out for the continuation of this story!


Sources:

LHS 1927 yearbook
LES 1965 yearbook
Talk Loudoun: School Spirit
CIPs
Blueprints
"New School Building Destroyed By Fire" The Blue Ridge Herald, February 5, 1925
"School Advisory Committee Meetings" Loudoun Times-Mirror, February 19, 1925
Town of Leesburg: Antebellum Leesburg
"100 Years of Loudoun" Washington Post, December 26, 1999

The History of Administrative Spaces

They are not schools, but they are just as necessary. Administrative Offices are key to keep everything in the school system running smoothly.

So, here's my admin timeline. Tell me if I forgot anything.

I'm going to start at Superintendent Emerick’s original office (1917): his home (corner of Orchard and Main St) in Purcellville. (Before this, admin was probably somewhere else. I don't know of anything before 1917 at this time.)

(Picture from Emerick Elementary School site)

1918: the offices move to a space above N.G. Miller’s Purcellville Pharmacy

1935: offices move into an office behind the Loudoun County Courthouse (2^nd floor in former Leesburg Academy building). It is basically two rooms and a walk-in closet.

Former Leesburg Academy Building

1962: The Union Street Admin Facility opens. It is the first facility built to be used as a school admin space. It is called the School Board Office/Main Office Admin Building. (Presently, it is the Child Find and Parent Resource Center)

Union Street is the brick building on the right.
(I'll talk about the building on the left later.)

1969 – 1971: Between holding Broad Run HS overflow/middle school students, Douglass HS is used for administrative offices. It is called the "School Board Annex"

Douglass School / Community Center

 
1971: Leesburg ES closes and becomes admin space. Its official name now is the School Board Annex Building, but eventually, it is called "North Street" after the road it is on.

North Street (picture from spring 2011)

1982: Douglass ES closes and is used as a support facility/admin space.

Douglass Support Facility

1988: A new central Admin Building is proposed by School Board to the Board of Supervisors. Construction funds for the building are excluded from following CIPs due to fiscal constraints, and the building is not built. 

1992: There is a structural analysis of the Union Street admin facility for feasibility of a second floor.

Another view of the Union St. Admin Building. It's tiny!

1998: 51 Plaza Street appears in the school directory. They are trailers on the Douglass Support Facility property. Along with this, Douglass Support's address changes from 3 Sycolyn Road to 55 Plaza Street.

51 Plaza Street trailer facility

1999: Round Hill School closes, and is reused as a support facility. The Staff Training Center (former Ashburn ES and BRHS Annex) appears in the school directory under admin facilities.

Round Hill Center

Staff Training Center
(We've gone over this)

2005: the Admin Building on Education Court in Ashburn opens. Everyone rejoices! Administration is now in one centralized location and space is plentiful. Its official name is the "Loudoun County Public Schools Administrative Building." (Homework to everyone: help give it a good nickname). North Street is vacated.

LCPS Administration Building

2006: 51 Plaza is vacated, and the trailers are sent down the road to be used by the Douglass School (the number "51" can still be found on the trailers).

2010-2011: North Street converts into a Senior Center (it opens this fall! Check it out!)

2011: Douglass Support is closed and demolished for a new F. Douglass ES.

Douglass Support Facility in the middle of demolition

(There are also spaces that aren't necessarily admin spaces, but they are support facilities. The Warehouse (1989), The Valley Service Center (2002), the Maintenance Facility (2002), and the Bus/Transportation Facility (1991) are all current support buildings. The Annex building at Loudoun County HS (1954) used to be a bus warehouse, but has since been given over to be used by the school.)

Despite many a move, LCPS administration has been supporting Loudoun schools for many a year. Thank you for all that you do.

 Sources:

Leesburg Magazine

CIPs

Construction Dept files

School Directories

"A Brief History of Loudoun Schools"