Ashburn Colored
Edited 9/18/2023
Opening and Closing
Opened 1892.
Closed: AY 1958/59. Sold by LCPS: April 4, 1959. Students moved to Douglass Elementary. Final purchase in 2014 by Loudoun School for Advanced Studies.
Also known as Cedar Lane and Farmwell, the school is in the Broad Run District (See digital map). There are conflicting accounts on dates of construction, Some suggest 1887 for a one room frame structure costing $400. Others indicate 1892 when a one room frame building was constructed for a cost of $500. (Source: Report of Survey Committee on Long Range Planning for Loudoun County, January, 1940. EWP: 2.2 Yr. 1918-1952)
The reader should keep in mind that wooden buildings sometimes burned down and had to be replaced on the same space, which happened at the Willisville Colored School and Lincoln High School. What research has shown is that a one-room, frame school-house, was on property sold to the Broad Run School District under a deed of B.F. Noland and wife, December 6, 1892. This would hint that the school house may have come later; though that’s not necessarily accurate. It could have been a privately held school before being sold to the local school board.
On April 4, 1959 at noon, the school house was sold at public auction in front of the Court House of Loudoun. (Source: Poster for Public Auction April 4, 1959, in Box 2 of the archives of the Loudoun County, Circuit Court, Leesburg. See also Deed Book 7G, Folio 171, Archives of the Loudoun County Circuit Court, Leesburg.)
2014, the Loudoun School For the Gifted purchased the Ashburn Colored School. Read more about the vandalism and restoration of the school.
Physical and Map Location
20593 Ashburn Road, Ashburn, Va. 20147. Note: On private property. Ask permission.
Petitions
28 Jan, 1956. The Clerk of the School Board reported that Ashburn Colored School only had enough coal to last three weeks. The clerk asked Jake White in Lincoln to look in to the matter and also check with Hillsboiro to see if there were other needs. Source: 2.5.A Yr. 1956 Ashburn Coal Request.
Transportation
History
1941. Did reprise of the play on Black accomplishments first performed at the Black World's Fair in Chicago in 1940. The Edwin Washington Society is considering doing another reprise of the play.
1959. Public sale 4 April, 1959 in front of the Court House in Leesburg. Same property that School Board derived title to under the deed of B.F. Noland and wife, 6 December, 1892. See Deed Book 7G, Folio 171. Serchives of the Circuit Court of Loudoun County.
2016. "Students work to save historica Ashburn schoolhouse." Loudoun Times Mirror in an article from, Feb 18 incorrectly noted that it was once the only school in Loudoun when Blcks could receive an education. Definetly untrue. There were many others, though the quality of education was inferior to that provided whites. The school had recently been purchased by the Loudoun School for the Gifted, and students were committed to preserving the structure.
2017. Rededication took place 16 September, 2017. See vertical files in the Edwin Washington Archives, Douglass HS Building, Leesburg.
Instructors
1917/18: Gracce Murray. No experience.
1932- 1957/58: Lola Herrod Jackson, Brn 7/31/1902. Educated Philander Smith College, Arkansas.
Insurance and Physical Description
Number of rooms: One. Cost of construction for colored school was $500.
* Construction Material (sides and roof) Wood on stone with metal roof. 20.5’x32.5′. (see text for more details)
* Plumbing: None. Water was well water.
* Electricity: None mentioned in records.
* Heated by wood/coal stove.
* Outhouse(s) or toilets: Outhouses, one for boys and one for girls.
Plat of School House is in vertical file of Edwin Washington Archives at Douglass HS building in Leesburg.