Evergreen School as it stands today. This two-room school is located on Rising Sun Road.
Evergreen School is an historic school building on Rising Sun Road in Fluvanna County. On the site where the building stands today, there was originally a one-room school building that was destroyed by a fire in December 1934. Its exact location is unknown. The first attendance roster from 1887 listed it as the 2nd District (Columbia District) School for Colored. It was described as a “rude log cabin” consisting of one room, heated by a wood stove and ventilated by cracks in the wall. It was furnished with one ax, one water bucket, one dipper, one stove, and eight benches. The classes were two to four weeks long, held between November and April. The students ranged from 6 to 20 years old, and there were 44 names on the class roster. The teacher was H.T. Melton. We have attendance rosters for several years up until 1892. From 1892 to 1930, there are no records, but students continued to attend.
The original Evergreen School was one room and was destroyed by fire in 1934.
A fire destroyed the original building in December of 1934, but by September 1935 the School Board had a new building ready for the new school year. The new school was built on Route 608/Rising Sun Road near Wilmington, and still stands today – pictured here. It was built as part of a state wide program by the Virginia Department of Education in 1934, which was intended to standardize schools and build better learning environments for African Americans throughout the state. The program was preceded and inspired by the Rosenwald School program that began in the 1910s, and the architectural design for these buildings is very similar, and these state funded buildings are often confused with Rosenwald schools.
The new school building consisted of two rooms, one for primary through grade 3, and the other for grades 4-7. Most students walked to school, a distance of 50 yards to 2 miles. A 1950 newspaper article entitled “Fluvanna Negro Schools Need Consolidating,” stated that the enrollment at the Evergreen School at the time was 58 students with two teachers. Evergreen School closed in 1958 when Fluvanna County consolidated all the Black elementary schools in the county at Central Elementary School, in the hopes that by providing better facilities for Black students in Fluvanna they could delay integration. The building was sold and is now privately owned.
This photo was donated by a descendant of those pictured here, and was taken circa 1935. The names of these students appear in the Virginia Teacher’s Register for Evergreen School, located in the FHS Archives. Back row: Ella Scott Franklin, Hattie Ware Scott, Susan Scott White (holding baby Virginia White)
Middle row: Lutrell Franklin, Leroy Franklin, China White, Eleanor White, Stewart White
Front row: Azella White (standing in front of Stewart White)
Currently, a project is underway to 3D image the interior of the building by FHS Board Member Will Rourk, as UVA Architectural History faculty for his class, and to assist Jody Lahendro, a former Historic Preservation Architect of UVA in his official architectural documentation of the building to assist the Evergreen community to register this building as an official historic location with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Fluvanna Historical Society and UVA are excited to be assisting the community’s efforts to preserve this incredible historic building, led by Willie Monroe, whose family owns the current building standing today.
A big thank you goes to Montchell Brice, for her incredible research on this school, Mozell Booker, for the photos and archival materials to help us understand this school, and to Willie Monroe and the Evergreen community for all their work on preserving this school.
The Historical Society is still looking for anyone who has pictures, report cards, stories, or any other mementos to share with the community, and add to our knowledge about this historical school. Feel free to stop by the archives at Maggie’s House to contribute or learn more about the Evergreen School or other Fluvanna history during our regular open hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 1-4pm or by appointment.
You can see the work by Will Rourk’s UVA Architectural History students to 3D image this building and learn more about its construction and use here.
