A Place that Loses its History Loses its Soul.

Central Rappahannock

Heritage Center

Newsletter

Volume 14, Issue 11

September 2024

Annual Meeting

7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024

Old Walker-Grant School

200 Gunnery Road

Fredericksburg, Va.

Open to the public

Kindergartens of Fredericksburg's past

helped little ones get ready for school

Summer isn’t officially over until the autumnal equinox on Sept. 22, but the yellow buses rumbling down streets mean that schools are back in session and children are in classrooms rather than swimming pools.

In recognition of all the brave little souls kissing mamas and daddies good-bye and boarding those big yellow busses for the first time, we’re taking a look at kindergartens of the past in Fredericksburg and their teachers, going back to the early part of the 20^th century. These were the days before public school kindergartens, when private kindergartens took on the serious business of teaching phonics and arithmetic, songs and nursery rhymes, and the diplomatic arts of manners and sharing.

We’ve researched the collections of the Heritage Center and other sources to uncover stories of a number of private and community kindergartens in Fredericksburg’s history, many run by college-educated women in their own homes, some White, some Black. Unsurprisingly, there is more information in the historical record about schools for White children than there is for Black children.

Chances are there were other kindergartens in the city, and undoubtedly there were also kindergartens in the surrounding counties. The following is a baker’s dozen of city kindergartens, presented somewhat chronologically based on when they opened.

Miss Barber's Kindergarten on Commerce Street

The 1910-11 City Directory shows Miss Barber’s Kindergarten located at 400 ½ Commerce St., now known as William Street. Its principal was 23-year-old Beryl Alice Barber, daughter of the Rev. and Mrs. Hubert Hough Barber, English immigrants to Canada who settled in Fredericksburg in 1901 when the Rev. Hough became rector of Trinity Episcopal Church.

According to her obituary, Miss Barber was born in Winnipeg, Canada, and she graduated from Fredericksburg State Normal School, now the University of Mary Washington. In 1913, she married a well-known Fredericksburg resident, Mason H. Willis, who was clerk of the court in Fredericksburg for more than 25 years and a member of City Council for seven years. He also was a partner with his father in a hardware business, John C. Willis & Son, which they purchased in 1902.

The Willises lived at 1211 Prince Edward St., and there seems to be no record of her operating a kindergarten after her marriage. She did go on to work with older students as supervising teacher for the college’s teacher training program.

A hint of Mrs. Willis’ personality can be gleaned from a comment she is said to have made, which is mentioned in Willis family papers. “When I die,” she said, “don’t put on my tombstone that I was a good woman, unless you say, ‘a damned good woman!’”

She died in 1970, and her gravestone in the Confederate Cemetery next to her husband’s records only her dates of birth and death, nothing about her character.

Miss Anne Lee Cunningham focused on academics

Many youngsters in Miss Anne Lee Cunningham’s Kindergarten skipped first grade thanks to the rigorous teaching methods of the diminutive Miss Cunningham. Between 1930 and 1949, several hundred future doctors, lawyers, bankers, writers and teachers - among others - got their first taste of academics in the upstairs classroom of her home at 1013 Charles St.

A native of Fredericksburg, Miss Cunningham was a tiny, frail baby born in 1900 to Norman and Annie Hugh Scott Cunningham, and she was so sickly looking that nobody thought she’d live to adulthood. But along with her pint-sized stature, she had a steel constitution and a strong sense of purpose. She died in December 2000, just three days short of her 100^th birthday.

A graduate of the State Teachers College, now the University of Mary Washington, Miss Cunningham first taught public school in Arlington, but when her father died in 1930, she moved back home to live with her mother. Thanks to her family’s circumstances, she didn’t need to work, but she wanted to, and soon she was running a successful kindergarten.

In an interview with The Free Lance-Star in 2000, Betty Savage Stephens said that after attending Miss Anne’s kindergarten for the 1932-33 term, she was able to read and write, so she entered second grade at Lafayette School. She remembered that Miss Cunningham was strict, but also very kind and loving.

Miss Cunningham adopted an orphan and became a single mother a year after starting her kindergarten, despite polite suggestions that it was an unseemly idea. She’d never married, and probably never had a beau, according to her first cousin, the late Dr. D. William Scott. But when she heard about the 3-year-old girl left behind after her two siblings had been adopted, she arranged to adopt her from the Methodist orphanage in Richmond. She often said it was the best decision she’d ever made.

In 1973, Miss Cunningham moved a block away from the Charles Street home where she’d grown up to a townhouse on Amelia Street. She became a familiar sight in old clothes every morning as she tended a glorious flower garden in the small front yard, sterling silver spoons and forks her tools of choice. She even received fan mail from admirers, addressed to “The Flower Garden Lady.”

Miss Cunningham died after a brief stay at Woodmont Nursing Home. She is buried next to her parents in the Fredericksburg City Cemetery.

This photograph in the center's collection shows a group of Miss Cunningham's kindergarten students visiting an office to make a contribution to the 1945 War Fund. The fund was a post-surrender national effort to continue supporting the needs of troops still abroad and the community resources they would require when they got home. The photograph is dated March 22, 1945.

Fredericksburg Day Nursery served a community need

Fredericksburg Day Nursery School was likely the first community-supported kindergarten in Fredericksburg. Opening in the mid-1930s, its primary mission was to provide daycare for the young children of low-income or working mothers, but kindergarten instruction was provided for 5-year-olds to prepare them for public school.

The nursery was originally funded by the Works Project Administration, a New Deal program created by President Franklin Roosevelt to help Americans during the Great Depression. The late Alis Bailey, a longtime social worker in the city, was instrumental in the school’s founding, and she remained a supporter for many years.

According to a 1939 Free Lance-Star article, the school was first housed in a room at the Salvation Army building, and some 15-20 children ages 2 through 5 attended each day. In many cases, their mothers had been forced to find jobs, or were unable to provide proper care at home.

By 1941, the school had moved to its permanent location at 609 Sophia Street, a frame building constructed by Peck Heflin. In more recent years, the building was occupied by Prince Hall Masonic Lodge No. 61 until it was razed to make way for Riverside Park.

The house had downstairs rooms for activities and instruction, and a full kitchen with a gas stove and an electric refrigerator. Upstairs there were cots for daily naps, and each child was given a sleeping robe and a washcloth and towel. A shady yard offered outdoor play.

Youngsters received hot meals, lessons in manners and deportment, academics, and physical recreation. They also were given a dose of cod liver oil and a glass of tomato juice every morning, regular physical exams, vaccines, Wasserman tests and diptheria serum.

The WPA program ended in 1943, but by 1941, community groups were running and funding the school, it was licensed by the State Board of Welfare, and it was already a beneficiary of the Fredericksburg Area Community Fund. Free Lance-Star articles of the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s cite numerous examples of civic efforts to provide for the school’s needs. There were frequent food drives sponsored by clubs at Mary Washington College, and in 1949, an anonymous donor delivered 10 quarts of milk to the school on a daily basis.

The school’s earliest and most ardent supporter was the Fredericksburg Business and Professional Women’s Club, which took the lead for many years in fundraising as well as daily oversight. To raise money, the club had a regular schedule of activities, including card parties, benefit movies, quilt raffles and galas.

Club members also were officers of the school, and one in particular, Mrs. Roy A. (Ida) Beck, was president of the school from the mid-1940s until at least the mid-1960s, perhaps longer. Mrs. Beck and her husband owned Beck Furniture on Caroline Street, and her association with the club was so strong that she was frequently stopped on the street by someone offering a donation for “your children,” according to a 1956 Free Lance-Start article.

No information has been found on when the school closed.

City's Black children loved and respected Miss Golden

Miss Carrie M. Golden is listed as a teacher in the 1938 City Directory, and she was still teaching in the 1960s when Fredericksburg public schools superintendent, Dr. Marci Catlett, spent three years in her private preschool for Black children. At that time, Miss Golden’s kindergarten was on Wolfe Street, but in 1938 it was located at 705 Amelia St.

The late Johnny P. Johnson remembered Miss Golden as “a very colorful lady” who had a reputation for being quite a taskmaster. He attended one of the graduation ceremonies she held every year, and he said, “It was almost like the changing of the guard at Arlington, in terms of the precision of the children.”

But despite her strict, rigorous approach to teaching, Miss Golden was a kind, loving woman who always inspired the best in her students, and in return, the students adored her, said Dr. Catlett. "She was my first educator role model, and a powerful and impactful influencer in my life."

Born in 1893, Miss Golden died at the age of 81 in 1975 and is buried in Shiloh Cemetery.

This photograph provided by Dr. Marci Catlett shows the 1965 graduating class at Miss Carrie Golden's Kindergarten.

Sue Ward's teaching career spanned nearly 70 years

Sue Ward’s Kindergarten and Pre-School was likely the longest operating school in the area, from 1934 to 2001, serving nearly 4,000 youngsters.

According to her obituary published in The Free Lance-Star, Sue Powell Ward was a Spotsylvania native, a 1929 graduate the old Chancellor High School and a 1932 graduate of State Teachers College, now the University of Mary Washington.

She taught public school for two years before opening a kindergarten in her home at 413 Pelham St. In the 1940s, her school had become so popular she had to move to larger quarters in her sister’s home at 2015 Fall Hill Ave. In 1967, she moved to her final location at 405 Hanson Ave.

Mrs. Ward emphasized reading, writing, and arithmetic with her students, but she also planned frequent field trips and special activities. The school’s annual Christmas program at the Fredericksburg Community Center was open to the public and always drew an enthusiastic audience. Each December, announcements were published in the Free Lance-Star, noting that as many as 45 children would be participating.

Mrs. Ward was also a mother and she was active in the community. She was a den leader for Boy Scout Troop 171, and a longtime member of Fredericksburg Baptist Church, where she sang in the choir for more than 40 years and taught Sunday School for more than 30 years. She also was a member of the Fredericksburg Community Choir and was an avid bingo player.

She was married for 53 years to David Monroe Ward, who predeceased her. She died in 2004 at age 92 and is buried in Sunset Memorial Gardens.

This photograph from about 1954 shows a group of Sue Ward's kindergarten students enjoying reading time.

Gussie Kay was an early teacher of young Black children

Mrs. Gussie M. Kay’s Kindergarten was another school serving Black children that operated at one time in the 1300 block of Charles Street.

The late Johnny P. Johnson mentioned her in his oral history interview with the Central Rappahannock Regional Library. Even though she died in 1960 before Johnson came to Fredericksburg, he said he remembered hearing about her kindergarten from neighbors.

According to Findagrave.com, Mrs. Kay was born in 1881 in New York and was married to Dallas Montgomery Kay, a native of Caroline who ran D.M. Kay Funeral Home at 1311 Charles St. The Kays were active in the Black community, and the funeral home served Black families in the Fredericksburg region for many years.

The Kays lived at 1317 Charles St., where Mrs. Kay presumably ran her kindergarten. Mr. Kay died in 1936, and Mrs. Kay survived him by 24 years, and both are buried in Shiloh Cemetery.

Mrs. Purks' kindergarten was in her childhood home

The 1940 federal census shows Mrs. Purks' Kindergarten operating at 612 Lewis St., where the former Mary Van Buren Rawlings lived with her husband of three years, Walter Donovan Purks, and her widowed mother, Loula Williams Rawlings.

A native of Fredericksburg, Mrs. Purks was a 1932 graduate of State Teachers College, now the University of Mary Washington, with degrees in history and English and a minor in education. She taught school for several years before opening the kindergarten in the basement of the home where she’d spent her childhood. Her mother, also a teacher, assisted her in the kindergarten.

The two ladies’ reputations and the downtown location made the school an appealing choice for neighborhood families in those days when kindergarteners could walk to school. In a 2008 oral history interview with the Central Rappahannock Regional Library, the late Anne Wilson Rowe recalled taking alleyways and driveways in addition to sidewalks from her home on Hawke Street to Mrs. Purks’ school.

Mrs. Rowe also remembered the end-of-year closing ceremony featuring all the children in costumes singing songs and reciting nursery rhymes. In later years, Mrs. Rowe acquired some of the child-size red, yellow, and blue chairs that Mrs. Purks had used in her school.

Mrs. Purks operated her kindergarten at least into the late 1950s, as evidenced by a 1957 advertisement in The Free Lance-Star announcing the reopening of her school for the fall term.

At some point, Mrs. Purks was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and she died of meningitis in 1964 at the age of 52, leaving behind her mother, husband, and 14-year-old son, James Rawlings Purks. She is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Mrs. Gravett's school was part of 37-year teaching career

Mrs. Gravett’s Kindergarten was another downtown school that attracted neighborhood children. Elizabeth Johnson Gravett was a native of Orange County and a 1925 graduate of State Teachers College, now the University of Mary Washington.

After marrying Julius Gillespie Gravett, the couple moved to Fredericksburg, began a family, and Mrs. Gravett started a teaching career that would span 37 years. She operated her own private kindergarten for a number of years in the city and also taught first grade in Stafford and Orange counties before retiring in 1971.

Janet Jones Sullivan went to Mrs. Gravett’s Kindergarten in about 1946 or 1947. In an oral history interview with the Central Rappahannock Regional Library, she said she recalls attending the school at two different locations, the first in the "Steamboat House” at the corner of Prince Edward and Lewis streets.

The Massey family who lived at the Steamboat House were relatives of Mrs. Gravett’s husband, and because the house had two front doors at the time, the door closest to Lewis Street was used as the kindergarten entrance. At some point during the school year, Mrs. Gravett moved the kindergarten into Dr. Holloway’s basement on Hanover Street.

Mrs. Gravett died in 2005 at the age of 94 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Aline Carter operated Jack and Jill Kindergarten

Jack and Jill Kindergarten opened its doors for the first time in January 1950. The new school was operated by Mrs. Ercel Carson Carter in the basement of her home at 1315 Franklin St.

The former Aline Mae Hughes, Mrs. Carter was born in 1906 in Holdcroft, an unincorporated community in Charles City County, and she came to Fredericksburg to attend what is now the University of Mary Washington. By 1930, she was boarding with a Huffman family in Hartwood and working as a public school teacher, according to federal census records. She was 24 years old, the same age as the Huffman’s daughter, Clara, so it’s possible they were college friends.

Aline married in 1939, and in 1940, the couple built the tidy Cape Cod house where she would establish her kindergarten, and where she would make her home for nearly 50 years. Before opening the school, however, she had a son, taught first grade at Falmouth Elementary and other local schools, and graduated from a course offered by the National Kindergarten Association.

Mrs. Carter’s students navigated a narrow walkway alongside her house to the backyard, where steps led downstairs to the classroom. Her kindergarten curriculum centered on learning through play and experiences, enhanced by frequent field trips to places of interest around town. Former students remember trips to the firehouse, post office, Farmer’s Creamery, and the college library, where they met for a chat with Dr. C. H. Quenzel, college librarian.

In an interesting sidelight, Mrs. Carter had a familial connection to the college through her husband, whose mother, Rosa Mae Darter, was the sister of the late Oscar H. Darter, longtime history professor at Mary Washington. Dr. Darter and his wife, Lela, lived in the same neighborhood below the college as his nephew’s family, and Mrs. Darter taught second grade at the old Lafayette Elementary School.

Jack and Jill Kindergarten held graduation exercises each spring, most often at the college’s DuPont Hall, where 5- and 6-year-olds in pastel-colored caps and gowns assembled on stage for the ceremony, a moment captured for many classes in a black and white photograph.

No records have been found to indicate how long Mrs. Carter operated Jack and Jill, but it was at least into the late 1960s. After her husband died in 1975, she was a widow for 14 years until she died at age 83 after suffering from rheumatoid arthritis for 18 years. The Carters are buried at Sunset Memorial Gardens.

Shortly before her death in 1989, Mrs. Carter moved into a care facility, and she sold her house to a young couple who were looking for a cozy home to raise a family. Don and Terri Mullen moved in, had two children, and they still live there, only the second owners of the home. A blackboard still hangs on the wall in the basement, a reminder of the many youngsters who got their first taste of school under Mrs. Carter's care.

The 1958 graduating class at Jack and Jill Kindergarten poses for a formal photograph at commencement exercises in DuPont Hall at Mary Washington College. Third from left on the front row, that's Sarah Doggett Scott Williams, and on her right is Johnny Mitchell.

A woman of many interests led Kay's Kindergarten

Kay’s Kindergarten in Ferry Farms operated from 1960 to 1983, taught by a busy lady who loved life as much as she loved children.

Kay Ryburn Jenks Davies was a native of Lynchburg and a graduate of what is now Longwood University. She came to Fredericksburg in 1951 and taught physical education, civics and history in King George and Stafford public schools before opening her kindergarten.

Mrs. Davies led a busy civic life and she was frequently honored for her service to local clubs, nonprofits, and community organizations. She was active in Soroptimist International, Job’s Daughters, Fredericksburg Clean Community Commission, the United Way, Historic Fredericksburg Foundation Inc., Order of the Eastern Star, and the Izaak Walton League. She also was a longtime volunteer and supporter of the Fredericksburg Agricultural Fair, for which she organized the Miss Fredericksburg Fair pageant.

Children in her kindergarten also benefited from her energy and enthusiasm. Along with regular field trips and special classroom activities, every December her students rode on a fully decorated float in the city’s downtown Christmas Parade.

Vallie Heflin Rich grew up next door to Mrs. Davies and was best friends with her daughter, Jessica. In a eulogy delivered at Mrs. Davies’ funeral, Mrs. Rich expressed her love and respect for her “second mother,” calling her “a true grit kinda woman,” who was strong, independent, creative, full of energy and enthusiasm.

She also remembered Mrs. Davies' vibrant personality, which was expressed in her choice of flowered blouses, striped skirts, lots of beads and bold makeup that included black eye liner and brow pencil. Mrs. Rich said “she dared to challenge the female role and no matter what it was she was attempting to do, she did her best and expected no less than the best from others.”

Mrs. Davies was known as Kay Jenks for most of her life, but after the death of her first husband, Thomas Jenks, she married Robert E. Davies and took his name. She survived her second husband and died in 2004 at the age of 87, donating her body to medical science.

The undated photographs above from the Heritage Center's collection show two of the many floats that Kay Jenks Davies created over the years for her kindergarten students to participate in downtown parades.

At Anne Hamrick House, Cleo Lewis inspired generations of children

Anne Hamrick Community House, a kindergarten and important source of support in the Black community, had its beginnings in the Charles Street Settlement House established in 1958 by a caring Methodist minister named Anne Hamrick.

The settlement house at 229 Charles St. was conceived as a missionary program to occupy children in the Mayfield neighborhood and provide some religious instruction. Ms. Hamrick, Julia Tyler, and a crew of like-minded women oversaw a preschool in the mornings, provided structured activities for older children in the afternoons, and offered tutoring and homework help in the evenings. Volunteers enriched the schedule with arts and crafts, music, cooking and sewing lessons.

By 1962, the settlement house benefitted from funding as a member agency of the Fredericksburg Area Community Fund, and changed its name to the Anne Hamrick Community House, honoring its founder who had been transferred to a church in Clifton Forge.

In 1968, plans were made to concentrate efforts on the preschool program, and Cleo Brown Lewis was asked to serve as director. An admired and respected member of the Black community, Mrs. Lewis agreed to a temporary stint of one month. Instead, she stayed 35 years, serving as director, teacher, mentor and friend to several generations of families.

A native of Fredericksburg, Mrs. Lewis was born in 1934, oldest of the nine children of Josephine and Joseph Brown. As a child, she joined Shiloh (New Site) Baptist Church and was a faithful churchgoer throughout her life, as well as an active volunteer with several ministries. She also was a 1953 graduate of Walker-Grant High School and a founder of the school’s alumni association.

Under Mrs. Lewis' leadership, the school received broad community support, with funding from churches, civic groups, businesses, individuals, the Community Fund and the annual “Cardless Christmas.” Before the Presbyterian Church offered a permanent home, temporary locations of the kindergarten included the old Walker-Grant School and St. George’s Episcopal Church.

Despite changes in society and the influences of technology over the years, Mrs. Lewis held fast to her primary commitment to the children in her care: instilling confidence. “Our position is to promote confidence and to get them some self-esteem and to get them ready for the big world out there,” she told the Free Lance-Star in 2002.

Sammy White was one of those kindergarten students who benefitted from life lessons imparted at the Anne Hamrick House. “They taught us dignity when times were hard,” he told The Free Lance-Star. He valued his experience there so much that he sent his own son to the preschool, and he believes the school played a role in his son ultimately becoming a Navy SEAL.

The late Mary B. Faulkner, a member of the school’s governing board, wrote a letter to The Free Lance-Star praising the school and Mrs. Lewis. “Public school teachers said they recognized the head start of children from the Anne Hamrick preschool,” she wrote. “Hundreds of children benefited.”

Mrs. Lewis’ retirement coincided with the school’s final commencement upon closing the school in May 2003. She died just recently, on Aug. 17, 2024, and was buried at Quantico National Cemetery, leaving behind a legacy of service to her community.

Betty Poole nurtured kindergarten students for 20 years

When Betty Burke Janney Poole founded The Lawrence School in 1959, she was a divorced mother of a young son. With a degree in early childhood education, she was well-equipped to become a kindergarten teacher, but the resounding success of her school was also fostered by the love and support she received from her family.

Mrs. Poole’s Janney family had deep ties to Fredericksburg, but she grew up just north of the city in Occoquan, which at that time was such a remote, rural community that high school seniors had to finish their educations up the road in Alexandria.

After graduating from the University of Maryland, she got married, and Jeffrey Lawrence Myers was born in 1952. Little Jeff was only two when his parents divorced, and he and his mother moved to Fredericksburg to live with his grandparents on Littlepage Street. When Jeff turned 5, he attended Jack and Jill Kindergarten, one street over on Franklin Street.

When Jeff was 7, his mother opened her own kindergarten at 1500 Caroline St. in a house owned and offered to her by her father, Harvey Janney. She named it The Lawrence School in honor of Jeff’s middle name.

Jeff recalled in a recent interview that operating the school “was truly a family’s labor of love … I grew up cutting the grass there, helping establish the play yard for the children, and helping bring supplies over for the kids. I remember the coal being delivered to heat the building through a basement window, and my mother shoveling the coal into the furnace.”

He said the school was located on the first floor of the house, and his grandfather’s brother, Douglas Janney, lived upstairs for a period of time. “The school became a focal point for us.”

When Jeff was 10, his mother remarried, and her husband, J. William Poole, adopted him, and his name was changed to Jeffrey Janney Poole. But Jeff’s original middle name lived on in the kindergarten he helped his mother establish, and it's still a point of pride for him even though 65 years have passed since the school opened.

The Pooles went on to have two more children, and while teaching and caring for her

family, Mrs. Poole also was chairwoman of Wilson Brothers, a building supply

business owed by her family until it was sold in 2001. She served on the vestry

and sang in the choir at St. George’s Episcopal Church, and she was the first

woman to be appointed to the Virginia Draft Board.

As with many kindergartens in the city, The Lawrence School was a nurturing environment where lots of 5-year-olds became lifelong friends and went on to the city’s

elementary, middle, and high schools together. Florence Rowe Barnick says some of

her Lawrence classmates are friends to this day. She has lots of special memories of her time at Lawrence, but highlights include the backyard playground and walks to the nearby High’s store for ice cream.

Over the years, Mrs. Poole employed several other preschool teachers who added to the school's popularity, including Martha Hearn, Joanne Kinnamon, and Joan Baker. When Mrs. Poole retired in 1979 after 20 years of teaching, Mrs. Baker bought the school and operated it for a time on Parcell Street.

Grandchildren came into Mrs. Poole's life to help indulge her love of young children, but once a teacher, always a teacher. When asked if she would spoil her grandchildren, she replied, “I will love them AND teach them to behave!”

According to her obituary, Mrs. Poole was known for her strong will and her wisdom, as

well as her trademark giggle, infectious laughter, and positive outlook on life. She is also remembered for her hot pepper jelly, a favorite of friends and family that became famous many years ago when it was added to the menu at La Petite Auberge.

Mrs. Poole died in 2019 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery. Her husband died in 2022 and is buried beside her.

Betty Poole corralled a lot of giggles and mischief to enable Judson Smith Studios to get this photograph of her kindergarten students. The undated photograph is from her family collection.

Children's House bridged racial and economic barriers

The Children’s House represented an important step forward for the Fredericksburg community because of its distinction as the area’s first and only racially and economically integrated preschool at the time of its founding in 1969.

Begun by members of the Fredericksburg Chapter of the Virginia Council on Human Relations, the school was inspired by the teachings of Maria Montessori, though it did not adhere strictly to Montessori methods. In an unstructured atmosphere designed to develop self-reliance, children played and explored on their own, with teachers serving as helpers rather than leaders.

The school's first class of 27 children was balanced racially and economically, with nearly equal numbers of paying students and scholarship students, for whom tuition was absorbed by the school. As a cooperative preschool, parents were encouraged to participate in classroom activities such as arts and crafts, music, play and exercise.

In the early years, classes met in several different locations before settling into two classrooms in the First Christian Church on Washington Avenue.

Enrollment was steady for the first few years but had begun to fall off by 1979, according to a story in The Free Lance-Star. That year, only 18 children were enrolled, including two black children, several Vietnamese children, and about six scholarship students. Tuition was only $27 per month for three morning sessions each week.

Enrollment continued to decline, and within a year or so the school was forced to close, but its impact on several hundred youngsters left a lasting legacy.

Kindergarten References

Along with the Heritage Center and personal collections, sources used to research these kindergartens and their teachers include the Virginiana Room at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library, the Fredericksburg Area Museum, Free Lance-Star archives, U.S. census records, Fredericksburg city directories, Newspapers.com, Ancestry.com, and

Findagrave.com.

Susan Scott Neal

Annual meeting to feature presentation by author Jim Hall

The Heritage Center will hold its annual meeting at 7 p.m., September 17, at Old Walker-Grant School, located at 200 Gunnery Road.

Following an update on Center business for the past year, we’re pleased to welcome Jim Hall as our guest speaker.

Jim is a retired journalist whose career spanned 36 years at several Virginia newspapers, the last 26 of which were spent at The Free Lance-Star as an award-winning reporter and editor.

Jim earned his undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech and a master’s degree in mass communications from VCU. In addition to working as a journalist, he’s also taught journalism as an adjunct instructor at the University of Mary Washington.

Since retiring in 2013, Jim has continued to write, turning his talents to historical research and little known, uncomfortable stories about Virginia’s past.

His first book, The Last Lynching in Northern Virginia, was published in 2016 by The History Press and told the dark story of a black man hanged and set on fire by a vigilante mob. The events took place in 1932 on Rattlesnake Mountain in Fauquier County.

Jim’s second book, Condemned for Love in Old Virginia: The Lynching of Arthur Jordan, tells a tragic tale about forbidden love. Also set in Fauquier County, the book recounts the 1880 story of an interracial couple, their escape to Maryland to make a life together, and the dire consequences they faced in the end.

Jim is a meticulous reporter, and his retirement passion involves personal interviews and hours of historical research in courtrooms, libraries, museums, and archives, including the Heritage Center.

For his presentation at the annual meeting, he’ll talk about his books and his research, with a focus on how the collections at the Heritage Center have aided his work.

The meeting is open to the public.

Message From The Chairperson

Florence Barnick

I’m so happy to report that our recent Open House was a rousing success!

We had a multitude of goals, and I think we met them all. In addition to generally spreading the knowledge about the center and our main goals of preserving and sharing our area’s history, we hoped to enhance our collections as well as attract new or returning volunteers.

We’re in a Catch-22 situation, in that we need and want to add more open hours. But that requires more volunteers and more training, which require more open hours. Now that Roger Lawson is hitting his stride as our volunteer operations coordinator, we finally have the ability to expand our hours, as well as tend to a list of projects such as creating “finding aids” to make research easier and more efficient.

I express my gratitude to the many board members and volunteers who were on hand to greet visitors and talk about the center, as well as provide delicious treats to enjoy while perusing exhibits and awaiting a tour of the Center.

I gave the tours (I think five in the two-hour window!), and folks’ reactions were terrific. Some visitors remembered from their school days the old Maury School gym where the center is located. A few of the center’s founding members dropped by to catch up on where we are now, and one visitor brought a small sampling of a larger collection they intend to donate. That one was particularly fun as she didn’t know I’d be giving the tour, and when she opened a shoebox to show me the contents, the top photo included my parents!

Another visitor was a resident of the Maury Condominiums who had previously donated the set of auditorium seating we have. He couldn’t bear to see them thrown out, so he offered a set to each of the condo owners, as well as to the Heritage Center. Of course, we don’t always or often accept or keep artifacts, but these are special!

You may not recall, as I do, that we held an open house previously with many of these same goals, but that was in February of 2020 and a few weeks later the world shut down for the pandemic. We had a good reception then, but weren’t able to follow through with new volunteers and interest in our work, because the center shut down, too.

This time, though, we hope to keep the momentum going and move forward without such a challenge! We do plan to hold more such events - perhaps quarterly - so if you missed this one, you’ll have other chances to visit and see firsthand the good work we’re doing to preserve our region’s history.

And if you’re ready to join us as a member or become a volunteer, we’d love to welcome you.

Again, I thank all who came out, to visit or to help. It takes a village and ours is one I’m happy to be a part of.

We have a show to take on the road!

The Heritage Center has a new Power Point program designed to showcase our efforts to preserve the grassroots history of the City of Fredericksburg and the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford.

We would be delighted to bring our presentation to your organization, either in person or by Zoom. We've recently presented for meetings of the Caroline County Historical Society, the Stafford Historical Society, and the Fredericksburg Regional Genealogy Society, and we'd like to add more engagements to our schedule to spread the word about the Heritage Center.

To arrange for a presentation, please contact the center:

contact@crhcarchives.org.

Mystery Photograph

Mailmen pose with their trucks in this 1952 photograph from the Heritage Center's collection. That may be the late Sam Perry at far left in the white shirt and tie, but we'd like to be sure, and we'd like to know the identities of the others as well. If you can help, please refer to file number 2015047P005 and contact the center at contact@crhcarchives.org.

Collections Report

John Reifenberg

A partial list of acquisitions in recent months shows the wide variety of materials in the Heritage Center's collection:

One roll of microfilm documenting bids for Fredericksburg's Raw Water Supply System Facilities, 1980.

A 3.5" x 2.5" black and white photograph showing construction of the railroad overpass at Charles Street, taken in 1926 or 1927. The Young-Sweetser building is in the background.

Videotape titled “The Latin Connection #49,” February 1998. Produced by Prestige Cablevision.

Miscellaneous photographs, advertisements, postcards, pamphlets and documents.

Pamphlet: “A Guide to Historic Bowling Green, Virginia,” published by the Caroline County Historical Society, 2007.

Box of 21-page pamphlets titled “Reconciliation On The Rappahannock: Fredericksburg During The Spanish-American War” authored by Noel Harrison.

High school memorabilia including yearbooks, documents, reunion records, news clippings, and correspondence relating mainly to James Monroe High School and Falmouth High School. Also a brief history of Chancellor High School.

Three boxes of books on genealogy related to the center’s collection area and some surrounding counties, including deed books, marriage records, death records, and land records.

A collection of news clippings from the Free Lance-Star and the Spotsylvania Times from the 1960's to the 1990's. Topics include: annexation, the FMC plant, Germanna Community College, North Anna Power Plant, Salem Dam, Spotsylvania Mall, and Lake Anna State Park. The donor plans to return with more material at a later date.

We're always looking for more materials to add to our collections, many of which are searchable on our website. Please don't go to the landfill; entrust your memorabilia to the Heritage Center.

To inquire about donating materials, contact:

John Reifenberg

jreinfenberg@crhcarchives.org

540-373-3704

Processing and preserving valuable documents requires special care and archival storage materials. We're always in need of these products, so if you'd care to contribute to our supply, we have a wish list at Amazon that includes archival materials as well as publications we'd like to have for the center.

CRHC Archival Supply Wish List

The Heritage Center's History and Mission

Virginia figures prominently in history books, but the founders of the Heritage Center believed that grassroots history was being lost - the stuff of basements and attics, old photo albums, tattered newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, and boxes of letters and memorabilia.

In 1997 they founded the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center and began collecting all types of historical documents and photographs to archive and preserve the personal heritage of the City of Fredericksburg and the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania, and Stafford.

Among the center’s varied collections now are family and business histories; court, county, and church records; documents on slavery and Jim Crow era legislation; family correspondence and diaries; genealogy; birth, marriage and death records; local newspapers; maps; photographs; and postcards. The variety covers the gamut and reflects the stories of people from every walk of life in the Rappahannock River region.

The center's mission is a simple one: to preserve historically valuable materials of the region and make it available to the public for research.

Center Hours and Research Services

Hours

Wednesday 1 to 4 p.m.

Second Saturday of each month 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Other days by appointment only.

Location

900 Barton Street #111

Fredericksburg, VA

22401

(540) 373-3704

Our volunteers will gladly offer research services.

For requests, appointments, and rates:

contact@crhcarchives.org

Welcome New Members!

Julie Black

Scott Boyd

Renee Davis

Wanda Farmer

London Jones

Roger Lawson

Susan Minarchi

Reuben Rock

Norman Schools

Robert Sullivan

Kathy Thornton

Please go to online to join our membership to support

the preservation of our region's unique history.

If you've enjoyed this newsletter and want to stay

up to date on Heritage Center activities,

please visit our website to sign up:

www.crhcarchives.org.

MANY THANKS

TO OUR GENEROUS 2023 HERITAGE CENTER

SPONSORS & CORPORATE MEMBERS

Deborah Baker

Jeanette and Nick Cadwallender

Barbara Hicks Cecil

Jim and Betsy Greene

Mary Katherine Greenlaw

Lucy Harman

Donald and Beverly Newlin

The Hon. J.M.H. Willis

Become a 2024 Sponsor and help save our history!

For information on becoming a sponsor, contact:

Thena Jones

tjones@crhcarchives.org

(540) 373-3704

The Heritage Center is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) organization that relies on donations to fund its important mission of preserving the region’s history. Your generosity helps pay for archival preservation materials, operational and maintenance costs for the library and facility, and other related expenses.

Central Rappahannock Heritage Center

Email: contact@crhcarchives.org

Call: 540.373.3704

www.crhcarchives.org