Woodlawn High School (Woodlawn, Virginia)

Woodlawn Male and Female Academy was a boarding school attracting students from several nearby counties and states. While most out-of-state students were from North Carolina, one student was known to attend the school from as far away as California. There were 123 students enrolled with 25 teachers on staff in 1898. A dormitory was constructed on campus to house students but was destroyed by fire in 1903.[5]

A new three story dormitory followed in 1904 with a cafeteria, parlor, music room and rooms for boarders. At one time it also contained one of the first circulating school libraries in Virginia. This building was later used by the high school for a cafeteria, supply store and extra classrooms until it too was destroyed by fire on January 27, 1960.[6]

Woodlawn High School's early, main academic building. Construction began in 1907 and the building opened in 1909.

The Virginia General Assembly doubled the state's education budget in 1906 and passed the Mann High School Bill. This bill, named after Senator William Hodges Mann of Nottoway County, obligated the state to pay matching funds to any district that built a high school. Over the next four years, Virginia school districts constructed 285 new high schools including Woodlawn.[7]

The honorable Claude A. Swanson was governor of Virginia in 1906 when money was appropriated to establish a public high school at Woodlawn. The school also received additional funds to provide teacher training in conjunction with the high school. This was before the establishment of Radford State Teachers College (Radford University), hence there were no institutions for teacher training in this section of Virginia at that time. [8]

Construction of the high school's early, main academic building began in 1907 on twelve acres of land. Members of the Woodlawn community raised the needed funds for the project themselves without government assistance. The building opened to students on January 19, 1909. Two additional classrooms and an auditorium were added to the building in the 1930s. Four additional classrooms were added to house elementary grades in the early 1950s.[9]

Woodlawn High School became the first public secondary school in the United States to offer vocational agricultural education classes under the Smith-Hughes Act. J. Lee Cox, superintendent of Carroll County Schools at the time, 1917, is given much credit for seeing the need for vocational agriculture classes. He went to the state capitol and persuaded the governor, Henry Carter Stuart, to let him develop the classes at Woodlawn.[10] Fred R. Kirby, the first teacher of agriculture at the school, was named Master Teacher of the South in 1933.[4] Kirby's successor, W.L. Creasy, was also named Master Teacher of the South in 1936.[11]

The agricultural classes greatly benefited the rural farming areas around Woodlawn. They offered students instruction in many areas including: farm administration, crop cultivation, crop fertilization, erosion control, livestock care, forestry, building maintenance and building construction.[12] Noted accomplishments of the classes included: higher yields on area farms, greater crop diversity, substantial investment in dairy and beef production, the introduction of permanent pastures, use of strip cropping to increase crop yield and decrease soil erosion.[11] The classes also aided in the establishment of a Carnation Milk plant in nearby Galax, Virginia to support area dairy farms. Most importantly, the classes increased interest in school among young boys versus quitting school early.[13]

1924 home economics cottage as it appeared in 2018.

Home economics was added to the curriculum in 1916. A cottage was built on campus in 1924 to house this department. In 1962, the home economics department was moved to a new high school building and the cottage became the home of the high school band. It was renovated again in 1975 and served for many years as the Carroll County Adult Education Center.[14]

Construction of a new, modern high school building was begun in the summer of 1961. The building included many new classrooms, science labs, a home economics department, library, cafeteria, a business department and administrative offices. The building opened for the 1962-1963 academic year on what had been the footprint of the 1904 dormitory. That same year brought additional students, additional faculty members, an elementary/secondary band program and an expanded curriculum offering students more course choices.

The last year for Woodlawn High School was 1968-1969 with consolidation into Carroll County High School (Virginia) located just outside the town limits of Hillsville, Virginia. The school became an intermediate school for grades K-9 beginning with the 1969-70 academic year.[15]

Kylene Barker, Miss Virginia 1978 and Miss America 1979, attended the school in the early 1970s. She became the first Miss Virginia to win the Miss America title. [16]

Map of Virginia highlighting Carroll County

In 1974 the school's entire physical plant was renovated. A new gymnasium, library, band room, music room, art department, vocational agriculture department, career development center and additional classrooms were added. The cafeteria was enlarged and administrative offices were expanded.

The school became a K-7 school in 1993 with the moving of eighth and ninth grade students to Carroll County Intermediate School in Hillsville, Virginia. In 2005, grade K-5 students were moved to new, expanded county elementary schools, creating Woodlawn Middle School housing grades six and seven only.[15] Woodlawn Middle School was officially closed in June, 2013. Beginning with the 2013-2014 academic year, students attended the newly formed Carroll County Middle School Hillsville, Virginia.[17]

In July 2018, a Winston-Salem, N.C.-based real estate development and property management firm (Landmark), entered into an agreement with the Carroll County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) to refurbish and repurpose Woodlawn School. The approximate $9.8 million project will convert the building to 51 affordable one, two and three-bedroom apartments. The project will also feature amenities such as a park, walking trail and children’s recreation facilities. [18]

Front entrance of Woodlawn School, Spring 2019.

In September 2018, the school was added to the Virginia Landmarks Register by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. This is the state's official list of important historic sites, it was created in 1966. [19] On January 17, 2019, Woodlawn School was added to the National Register of Historic Places. This is the official list of historic buildings, districts, sites, structures, and objects worthy of preservation in the United States of America. It was established as part of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and is overseen by the National Park Service.[20]