For years we drove by this little building with the chipped paint on Ashburn Road. Little did we know that a piece of history was slowly falling apart in front of our eyes.
While searching for property to build our new campus on, we found not only a great spot for our new building, but also discovered that the little building right next to it is the Ashburn Old School - the oldest African American schoolhouse in Ashburn.
In February, one of our teachers, Dr. Deborah March did our first research on the Old School at the Thomas Balch Library and shared this information with the faculty of Loudoun School for the Gifted.
Ashburn Today featured an article about the Ashburn Old School and our rehabilitation project.
Students began measuring the building and site to create a site plan.
Jana and Katie from Morven Park provided an overview of archaeological methodologies. Topics included soil layers/age, context, tools, excavation phases and choosing a scope of work. Students then selected the locations around the perimeter of the building for Shovel Test Pits (STPs).
Katie from Morven Park lead students in the first STP excavation, screening, documentation and artifact processing.
Using what they've learned from Katie, students dig three test pits.
Students launch their first crowdfunding campaign with GoFundMe.
Jana from Morven Park walked students through an introduction to historic architecture. She presented a basic overview of how buildings are read and understood.
Dan Sweeney & Cypress Contracting donated their time and supplies to get the Ashburn Old School ready for winter! They supported the back corner of the building that was falling in, added a safety railing around the front porch, made sure that the boards covering the windows were secure, fixed the door that didn't like to lock, and put up a barrier so that we don't have any unwanted furry guests this winter.
Jane Covington, from Jane Covington Restoration, helped us through the first step of becoming listed on the National Register of Historic Places by filing our Preliminary Information Form. Thank you very much Ms. Covington!
On Thursday, Jana Shafagoj from Morven Park talked to our students about the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. Students will need to understand these standards in order to make decisions for the scope of work document they will write.
Students spent a very cold afternoon at the Old School site documenting the issues with the foundation with help from Jana from Morven Park. They will be putting together a document to go out for bid in the next couple of weeks. We're hoping that our GoFundMe campaign (www.gofundme.com/ashburnoldschool) will have raised enough funds to move forward with rebuilding the foundation as soon as the weather warms up enough!
Loudoun Now has an article about our rehabilitation project - http://www.loudounnow.com/2016/02/23/old-ashburn-schoolhouse-to-get-new-life/.
We had an amazing lunch with former Old Ashburn School student, Yvonne Neal and her daughter. She described what the Old School looked like, and what an average day at the school was like.
We had the pleasure of meeting Reverend Alfonso Harrod. Reverend Harrod is the younger brother of Lola Jackson, who taught at the Ashburn Old School. We heard wonderful stories about his life, as well as Ms. Jackson's. Thank you Donna Bohanon, chair of the Black History Committee at the Thomas Balch Library, for inviting us to his presentation!
Fairview Restoration picked up our windows to begin their restoration. Once the foundation is rebuilt, the windows will be reinstalled.
Very exciting day - we got to meet another former Old School student - Ms. Louise Winzor! Ms. Winzor and her family came to visit us and share stories from the Old School.
GiveChoose is a 24-hour online fundraising event organized by the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties. We raised $575 through this event!
Our yard sale to save the Old School raised $1,026.93 and just as importantly raised awareness for the Old School project! Thank you to everyone who contributed to make this event a success - from donating items, to baking sweets, to organizing and pricing items, to driving students, to working the sale - it was an awesome community effort!
4th grade students from Mill Run Elementary School visited with our Ashburn Old School Rehabilitation project team yesterday to find out more about the Old School and see the work that we are doing. Our students updated them on our progress and gave them a tour of the interior of the schoolhouse. These 4th graders are amazing! Their teacher, Katie Wheedleton, told them about our project and the students decided that they wanted to help us raise funds to save this historic one-room schoolhouse. They are having a bike wash on June 6th to raise money and even created a really cool video to advertise for it (we hope to get a copy of this awesome video soon to share).
Ratcliff's Masonry completed the repairs to the foundation this week. It looks amazing!
Loudoun Now featured an article about the progress we're making on the Ashburn Colored School rehabilitation project.
Mike Reuter from www.reuterllc.com donated his time to remove the old electric box and all of the wiring from the Old School in preparation for painting. Thank you, Mike!
Fairview Glass began installing the restored windows - they look incredible! We are leaving the boards over the windows for a while to protect them from possible vandalism.
We've taken the interior shelving down and now you can really get a feel for the size of the school (and what we'll need to do to restore it).
Fairview Glass finished restoring and reinstalling the original six over six windows. Light is finally flooding the School again after years of darkness.
Our second yard and bake sale for the Old School raised almost $2,000 and just as importantly raised awareness for the Old School project! Thank you to everyone who contributed to make this event a success - from donating items, to baking sweets, to organizing and pricing items, to driving students, to working the sale - it was an awesome community effort!
We were very sad to find out that the Old School had been vandalized some time overnight with racist and vulgar graffiti.
Word of the vandalism spread quickly and went viral on social media. Articles appeared not only on the front page of our local newspapers, but on the home page of both CNN's and the BBC's websites. We were overwhelmed by the support, and donations flooded in.
We wanted to repair the damage done, not only to the Old School, but to our community as a whole, so we decided to host the Community Restoration Celebration on October 9th.
Redskins owner Dan Snyder and the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation donated $35,000 to complete the GoFundMe campaign goal of $100,000. We can't thank them enough for enabling us to move forward with the complete rehabilitation project!
The interior walls and ceiling have been stripped of the rotting beaverboard and mold-cover lath strips. We've also removed the beadboard to take it off-site to have the lead paint removed. Next comes the flooring...
We're ready to start rebuilding the interior of the Old School. The floors and walls have all been removed. It's fascinating to see what has been supporting this structure for the last 100 years - we're lucky that it has lasted!
Work has begun on shoring up the framing of the Old School. They are also replacing the exterior boards that are cracked or broken beyond repair.
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