Stubbs School - Spotsylvania Courthouse VA
N 38° 11.718 W 077° 35.226
18S E 273444 N 4230648
Stubbs School was an African-American school in Spotsylvania County, Virginia from 1930 to 1943.
Waymark Code: WMBK2X
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 05/28/2011
Views: 1
Stubbs School was built in the 1930s for African-American students in Spotsylvania County, VA. It was typical of most of the one-room schoolhouses in the county between 1870 and the early 1950s. It had no plumbing or electricity. An outhouse was in the schoolyard. An iron furnace provided heat during the cold months. The classroom was furnished with homemade desks and benches and a single slate blackboard.
Fifteen to thirty students of grades 1-7 studied spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and geography together in one classroom. Mornings started with prayer and there were breaks for lunch, recess, and chores like hauling water and collecting firewood throughout the schoolday.
Stubbs School was closed for intermittent times in the late 1930s and early 1940s due to low attendance, before it was closed for good in 1943.
The school was moved from its original location several miles away to its current site in Spotsylvania Courthouse. Over the next few years, Stubbs School was restored with a new roof, a new coat of paint, and repairs to the interior. A handicapped-accessible ramp was added to view the classroom through the windows. The inside of the school is generally not open to visitors. A plaza has interpretive signs in front and a reconstructed two-seater outhouse sits out back.
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