Afao
Afao is a village in southwest Tutuila Island, American Samoa. It is located on the island's short southwestern coast, between 'Amanave and Leone, to the southwest of Pago Pago. It includes the settlement of Atauloma. Afao is home to two places listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places: Afao Beach Site and Atauloma Girls School.
Afao | |
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Village | |
![]() ![]() Afao | |
Coordinates: 14°20′12″S 170°47′57″W | |
Country | ![]() |
Territory | ![]() |
County | Lealataua |
Area | |
• Total | 0.5 sq mi (1.4 km2) |
Population (2010) | |
• Total | 182[1] |
• Density | 335.5/sq mi (129.5/km2) |
In 1899, the London Missionary Society (LMS) started to raise funds to construct a girls’ school at Atauloma, and after $10,000 had been collected, Commandant Benjamin Franklin Tilley was invited to lay the cornerstone of its concrete structure.[2] The girls' school was constructed in 1900 as the second secondary school on Tutuila Island, and the first school on the island to accept female students. It was established by the LMS and provided graduates to the nursing school at the naval station in Pago Pago.[3][4] The school is located at the western edge of Afao, in Atauloma. The school was completed in 1900 and set on a 70-by-116-foot (21 by 35 m) concrete slab, facing towards the ocean. The second floor and peaked roof were made of California fir and redwood. The large spacious rooms on the first floor have 14-foot (4.3 m) ceilings.
In popular culture
- Episode 11 in season 3 of Ghost Hunters International was filmed at Atauloma Girls School.
References
- https://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2010/island_area/as.html
- Gray, John Alexander Clinton (1980). Amerika Samoa. Arno Press. Page 173. ISBN 9780405130380.
- https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/72001445.pdf
- United States National Park Service (1994). National register of historic places, 1966-1994: cumulative list through January 1, 1994. U.S. National Park Service. Page 22. ISBN 9780891332541.
- "American Samoa Statistical Yearbook 2016" (PDF). American Samoa Department of Commerce. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-02-14. Retrieved 2019-07-25.