History of the Second Street School
In 1866, Quaker Reuben Schooley (1826-1900) sold its Second Street
property to the "colored people of Waterford and vicinity." The
local African-American population, with financial help from the
Quakers, promptly erected a school building they could also use
for church functions. This is one of the older one-room schoolhouses
in Loudoun County and may be the oldest African-American house
of worship. The school finally closed its doors in 1957.
The simple one-room frame school on Second Street was built just
two years after the Civil War ended. Opened under the auspices
of the Freedmen’s Bureau, it was Waterford’s first
school for the black community.
The Friends’ Association of Philadelphia, Waterford’s
local Quaker meeting, and a
“colored educational board” provided additional support.
The first teacher was Miss Sarah Ann Steer, a white Quaker living
nearby.
Early classes were large. The District Superintendent’s
report to the Freedmen’s Bureau in 1868 recorded 63 enrolled,
with an average attendance of 42. Twenty-eight were older than
16.
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Mr. Winton Walker and his pupils, circa 1920
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By the early 1870s the school became part of the county's new
public school system. Schools for white children in Waterford remained
private for another decade.
The new building served from the beginning as church as well
as school. African Methodist services were held here until 1891,
when John Wesley Church was built near the mill. One student recalled
attending Baptist services at the school around the turn of the
century.
Black children from the village and nearby farms attended the
school until 1957, when it was closed by the School Board. Recognizing
its historical significance, the Waterford Foundation acquired
the building in 1977.
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