Loudoun County High School: Decorative Wooden Urns

Loudoun County High School, December 2009
(They were replacing the gutters and molding in the picture)

I'm not one of those people who likes to brag, but this is a nice story and I feel like it could eventually be forgotten, like the urns in this story.

This story is about Loudoun County HS's cupola. The cupola on County is the tower structure on the roof. Now cupolas can have an ornamental role, but their main function is a natural air conditioner (LCHS didn't have an a/c machine until the 1990's). Hot air rises, and a cupola is the highest point, so all the hot air leaves through the slits on the sides. County's cupola is not a bell tower or a clock tower. The cupola itself is a pretty tall structure. It actually makes County the tallest school in the county (The Administration Building in Ashburn is the tallest building used by LCPS)

My senior year, I was co-president of County's drama department. I had this crazy idea to go through ALL the old yearbooks, take a picture of each individual year's drama page, and then post them all on the drama department's Facebook page. It was crazy and daunting (but I did it!), and I learned a lot about the school in the process.

It was pretty early on when I made my first big discovery. In Lord Loudoun 1959, they had many glamour shots of the front of the school. The yearbook was celebrating the school's 5th year of operation.

LCHS Front Lawn. No trees! LL 1959

LCHS Front Lawn from the road.
I would love to be able to take pictures like this. LL 1959

LCHS Cupola, LL 1959

What I noticed was there were these corner decorations (their official name from the blueprints are "Decorative Wooden Urns") that the school no longer had. (It should be noted these urns were only used for decoration, so to my knowledge they were solid and there was no way to open them nor any remains contained within them.)

My mission changed from a casual look-through to a full-blown mystery. Long story short, I random jumped a bit, and I found they disappeared between LL 1976 and LL 1977.

LCHS with urns, LL 1976

Urn-less LCHS, LL 1977

According to LL 1977, there was a renovation/addition during the summer of 1976. A whole new wing of the school was added, an auxiliary gym (now the wrestling room and various locker rooms). There was also work done all over the school. Most, if not all, of the windows were replaced. The few faculty that is still around from that time did not remember the urns when I asked them about it.
So, whatever happened, all that was left of the wooden urns were four stumps. Once I saw them, it was all I could see.

My next bet was to continue asking faculty members, which included trying to get ahold of the principal from back then.

"Alumnus Returns to L.C.H.S. as Principal"
Dr. Edgar B, Hatrick, LL 1976

Dr. Hatrick, a LCHS graduate, was principal of LCHS during both of those years and now happens to be Superintendent of LCPS. I emailed him about the cupola and the decorative wooden urns, and I asked if he knew what happened to them. I also sent him these two pictures:

LCHS Cupola, Lord Loudoun 1959

LCHS Cupola, Fall 2009

  

I shortly got an email response, saying he didn't remember the urns, but there was a massive repainting/repairing on the cupola around that time. He then went on to tell me he asked Mr. Oblas to check the attic to see if they were there. They were not, so he was going to have new urns (fiberglass ones) constructed to go up on the cupola.

That was more than I could dream of for a first reply. I didn't ask for replicas, but I probably would have eventually asked or done something about it.

Time passed. Thanksgiving, Winter Break, and Spring Break passed by.

April 26, 2010 they started putting up scaffolding around the cupola. Not only was the cupola getting urns, it was getting a paint job and its copper top cleaned up.

Scaffolding going up!

Fully tarped, the paint has been stripped off

"Caution, Lead Hazard, Keep Out"

Fun Fact: the weather vane's rod is six feet tall.

Repainting

Soon, the whole thing was finished and the scaffolding came down. The copper looked like melted chocolate. The cupola remained in this way for a couple of days to a week.

Then, one morning, they arrived.

DECORATIVE FIBERGLASS URNS!!

Installation took two days. The first day, they tested them out.

Each urn is four feet tall!

On the second day, they were installed.

Everything was finished right before my graduation. It was a dream come true.

Furthering the dream at graduation, Dr. Hatrick had a speech, and a large part of it was about the urns and I. That was a big honor for me. Later, I got name-dropped by the guest speaker, Dr. Vinton Cerf. He co-designed the Internet. His speech was titled "The Power of Discontent," about how discontent is a force that creates ideas for change to improve the future. I think I have taken that message to heart.

Mr. Internet (June 2010)

I don't know whatever happened to the original wooden urns. The main theory is they started rotting, but who knows, maybe someone is using them as the tops of bed posts right now.


Two things that are interesting:

In the 2005 renovation plans for LCHS, whenever they showed the cupola, the urns also appeared. Were they supposed to be added on? It could be they just lifted it from the original blueprints

The other interesting thing is the school crest.

LCHS School Crest

The crest doesn't depict the urns. That's another reason they could be easily forgotten if nothing had an image of them. From an artistic standpoint, it would be a lot of detail to include the urns, they'd just look like black blobs and mess up the lines. The cupola doesn't look like it's missing them if they aren't put in. (This is all just theory. I'm not sure.)

So that's the story! That is why you will hardly see me posting pictures of Loudoun County HS pre-urns. I don't want Google Image Search full of outdated pictures, and I don't want people to forget them again.

Hey County. Haven't seen you look so good since 1976.

This is my last day of work, but not the finale of the blog. Still got a few more posts to work on. It's been a great two years. I've learned a lot, I've had lots of fun. I'm going to miss working here.

Sources:

LCHS Graduation 2010

Loudoun Times Mirror LCHS Graduation 2010 Article

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.

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   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.

Round School Design



  In 1966, three schools opened up, all with different designs. One was Guilford, which from the air was a square with a courtyard in the middle

Guilford ES. The gym at the top was added in 2000.
Map imagery from Google Earth.

   The other two are arguably the most unique-looking schools in Loudoun County. They were Catoctin and Hillsboro. These schools were built with the round school design concept.

 

Hillsboro ES. Map imagery from Google Earth.

  

   On August 13th, 1964, the Loudoun Times Mirror reported that both schools were "tentatively approved" by the School board and would be decided upon on the 18th.

"Both schools, of the new round-wing idea in educational construction, were designed by the architectural firm of MacIlroy and Parris of Richmond; both partners, Kenneth G. MacIlroy and Fred P. Parris discussed the slightly controversial and provocative plans with the Board. ...The architects termed the two schools as the "most economic buildings possible for the educational space required." "    - Loudoun Times Mirror

   And the schools were approved. There was a significant population growth in the 60's and 70's, thanks to Dulles Airport and planned neighborhoods coming to Loudoun. It was a period where a lot of schools needed to be built. I feel like this really gave the school system an ability to experiment, to try some new ideas. 

   Out of the three designs tested out in 1966, only one went on to be used again. Guilford's design was reused by Sully in 1968. 

Sully ES

   Perhaps round schools weren't really Loudoun's thing. Maybe its novelty had already worn off by then. Maybe the economical gains were minimal. Maybe Sully needed a larger capacity than the round school designs used could provide. In any case, round schools were now a thing of the past. The round school design was not completely useless, as both schools are still a part of LCPS today.

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   Now, for a little about the schools themselves.

Hillsboro ES

   Hillsboro is one circle. That's literally the whole school. It is the second smallest school in the county (Middleburg is #1). It is also the oldest operating school in the county that has never been expanded to. Many circular designed schools have never been expanded to because it is very challenging. Where do you go from a circle? A classroom "cottage" (fancy word for a permanent trailer) has been added a few steps away from the school to add more capacity.

Hillsboro ES

Hillsboro ES

   Hillsboro is not a perfect circle. To accommodate more administrative space, 3/10's of the school juts out, but it still curves, like a piece of pie was pulled out and then the crack was filled in. There is one hallway from the entrance that leads to the core, a circular multi-purpose room with a stage. The six classrooms' doors are off of the core (originally 7, but that classroom is now a computer lab/specialty teacher offices). And the core has "a skylight covered by an electrically-controlled shade" (LTM).

Catoctin ES. Map imagery from Google Earth.

   Catoctin was originally what I've written in my notes as "Two Hillsboros plus an office and multipurpose room." These circles, unlike Hillsboro's, are perfect circles. They are connected to the front office section by enclosed breezeways. Each circle has ten classrooms.

   Like Hillsboro, the center of the the circles in Catoctin have a skylight.

And a smaller stage area.

   Catoctin had a "future expansion" area for a third circle to be attached to the office section. When it came time for expanding the school, the future expansion replaced curves with corners.

Backside view of the '83 (center) and '99 (far right) additions

   It looks like at one time, there used to be a window (like at Hillsboro) where all the yellow-walled pieces are. It is very common for older schools to cover/get rid of excess windows. Windows don't keep the heat in as well.

 

Catoctin ES

   Loudoun County HS also has covered some parts of its windows

Loudoun County High School, Lord Loudoun 1962
(The windows also don't open up like that anymore)

  

Loudoun County High School (2012)

   Back to Catoctin, here's a picture of the office section of the original 1966 school, which holds the Library, office, and the multipurpose room.

  

Office section of Catoctin ES

   Interestingly, there is not a lot of information online about round schools that I could find.

Here is an article and newstory I managed to find if you're interested:

Round House Weirdness

Salem seeks a new angle for round elementary school (Original link provided whole article but has since died. Updated link provides a sampling. Apologies)

[Map imagery updated in 2020 due to deleting an email that held the data for all my old posts' photos.]

Obama at Loudoun County High School Recap

Picture by W. Minton

   Since I wasn't able to attend the Obama rally, I've been digging around for information. Since what Obama said has been covered elsewhere, I'm going to talk about other things. I've got some scoops and my regular nit-picks.

   Apparently, LCHS wasn't the first school asked to host the rally*. I heard Heritage and maybe one other school got asked. It's possible other schools were asked as well. Heritage had to turn it down because it was already booked for Driver License Ceremonies at the time (heard by a friend getting their license at the ceremony from the judge presiding). It would have made sense to be somewhere else. County doesn't have as much space as other schools. Oh well, our gain!

   Also, originally the website had said it would be on the football field. By Tuesday, that had changed to the Front Lawn. The football field probably would've had more capacity, but as I have stated already, LCHS's Front Lawn area is too beautiful a space not to use.

   Since I was on vacation, my mother was on assignment taking pictures.  Below are pictures taken on Tuesday, July 31, the day to get tickets. There were three places to get tickets, one being the school itself. My mom went there.

Getting tickets. July 31, 2012. Photo by W. Minton

July 31, 2012. Photo by W. Minton

   The line went from the front of the school, around the side, then around the back as well. 

The line for tickets. July 31, 2012. Photo by W. Minton

The free ticket. Photo by W. Minton

   At the rally, my mom described the standing conditions as being "packed like sardines." She's also fairly short, so she actually couldn't see that much, at one point getting one of her friends to take photos for her. My mom noted many times when I talked to her how unorganized getting onto the site was. She parked near Catoctin ES, and she waited with a long line of people just a block away from the school. They would not let her line go, even though people on the other entrances were being let in. Eventually, they took her line to the back of the line of people getting in.

Part of the line to get in, and already people are in there.
Photo by W. Minton

Photo by W. Minton

   I loved the bunting and patriotic banners to the LCHS facade. It looked timeless, simple yet effective. It fit the school so nicely.

   (I'd like to take this time to say County's facade is Georgian style architecture. Rarely does anyone get it right. Classical, Jeffersonian and Colonial has been thrown around, but for the record it is Georgian.)

3,200 people on the front lawn. Photo by W. Minton

They had a row of buses end to end on the road in
front of the school, most likely for security reasons.
Photo by W. Minton

Getting pictures of President Obama. Picture by W. Minton

President Obama. Photo by W. Minton

LCHS, the flag, and President Obama. Photo by W. Minton

   If you look carefully at the above picture, there is bunting in the half circle window over the portico! That was a really creative idea.

   Another great thing are the beads, or lack of them. Since May 2010, there was a beaded necklace hung on the 2nd "O" in "Loudoun." It finally came down when they put up the bunting for the rally.

(This particular picture is from June 2010)

   It's a small thing. It's insignificant, but it also should be no deal to take off. I literally went to the school one or two summers ago to tell them there were beads hanging from the letters. It was duly noted, but only until the rally were they taken down. The school system has man lift machines, it is not an impossible task.
 

The beads are gone! August 12, 2012

   I finally got a chance to visit LCHS this weekend. Little evidence was left of the rally. The lawn, though sporting holes from various platforms and seating, is very green.

   There's only one big thing, and I was pretty sure if anything was left up, it would be this.

   Yes, the half-circle portico window bunting. They'll probably discover it in a year or two, maybe take it down in five, or let it fall naturally.

   While I'm on a roll nit-picking, let's talk about various parts of the front where paint is peeling:

Peeling paint on the entablature.
Photo by W. Minton

   There's also my favorite, the metal pole that used to have a sign on it by the front sign. It's sticking out of a bush, serving no apparent purpose.
  

Stay classy, LCHS.

  

   (Update 9/2014: The pole is now gone.)

   I love my school, but I'm highly critical of maintenance and appearance. I also always carry a camera on me, so I have a lot of evidence. I understand there's extra maintenance issues with older schools, so it's harder and more expensive than newer schools. I also understand we are in one of if not the richest county in America, so if we really wanted to, it could be done.

   I have more...but that's all I'm posting.


   For more photos of the Obama Rally, I recommend the Leesburg Today's photo gallery. (Thanks Mom for letting me use your pictures!)

* Just to be clear, LCHS did not host. The people who put together the event rented the school.