Ashburn Colored
Basic Facts
* Created/Opened: 1892. (see text for more details. Building is older)
* Closed: AY 1958/59. Students moved to Douglass Elementary.
* Sold by LCPS: April 4, 1959. (see text for details). Finally purchased in 2014 by Loudoun School for Advanced Studies.
* Location: 20593 Ashburn Road, Ashburn, Va. 20147. Note: On private property. Ask permission.
* Number or rooms: One..
* 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.
Details on Location, Construction, Purchase and Sale
Also known as Cedar Lane and Farmwell, the school is in the Broad Run District (See the Edwin Washington Project 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.)
In 2014, the Loudoun School For the Gifted purchased the Ashburn Colored School. Read more about the vandalism and restoration of the school.
