Rural America – Page 2 – Jamie in Wanderland

Pageton Grade School — McDowell County, West Virginia

Pageton Grade School is located in the unincorporated community of Pageton, West Virginia in southeastern McDowell County. Pageton is located about 15 miles southeast of Welch on WV State route 161 about 7 miles from Gary.

Pageton is a former company centered town once powered by Page Coal & Coke Company. The old company store still remains standing and has a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

Pageton Grade school appears to have closed in the late 1980s or early 1990s. I assume students from Pageton were moved to nearby Anawalt or possibly Gary, seeing as how at the time when this school closed, schools at Gary were still in session.

As you can see the interior of the school has been let go very badly and like many other schools in this area has fallen into a state of decay.

As you can see, the word PAGETON is spelled out on the front entrance in the same font that is used at several other schools that were built in the 1920s and 1930s in McDowell County. I assume this school was built in that same era. It is probably most similar to the school at nearby Jolo which will be covered in my next entry in ths blog.

Rocky Branch School — Wayne County, Kentucky

Rocky Branch School is located in the eastern part of Wayne County Kentucky near the McCreary County line between the communities of Rocky Branch and Coopersville on Kentucky State Route 92.

Rocky Branch School is a prime example of a school building built during President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and the WPA.

The school was built sometime in the 1930s and is built out of the same cut sandstone that was used at the Wayne County High School on down the road in neighboring Monticello that is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

At some point, probably in the 1960s the school recieved a small addition on the building’s south side.

Rocky Branch closed to students after the 1984-85 school year as Wayne County began a consolidation process that left them with more centralized schools in the county.

Cubbage Elementary School — Bell County, Kentucky

Cubbage Elementary School is located near the intersection of Kentucky state routes 987 and 219 in the community of Miracle in Bell County, Kentucky.

I can’t pinpoint exactly when this school opened, but judging by the construction and styling cues I would estimate it as being an early 50s construction and maybe receiving some minor updates in the 1970s or 1980s.

Back in the 1999-2000 school year the Bell County Board of Education, faced with an aging fleet of elementary schools and budget issues voted to consolidate several of the elementary schools. Included in that list was Cubbage Elementary which was the south-eastern most school geographically speaking.

At the time, in the 1999-2000 school year Cubbage had saw its enrollment drop below 100 students to 89 and school board members couldnt see any feasible way in keeping the aging facility open.

The school is a basic rectangle footprint of what appears to be 7 or 8 classrooms on one side, and offices and a cafeteria on the other side.

There was also a mobile unit behind the school, which still remains there today, 15 years after the school closed.

I have to give credit to the graffiti artists at Cubbage, this is probably my favorite piece of graffiti that I have ran across in an abandoned building.

This was one of the classrooms on the front side of the building.

The lunchroom was still largely intact…including the folding into the wall tables.

I got to asking around about this building in the last year or so and I was surprised to learn that one of my dads cousins now owns the building. I hope to go back soon and do a full updated shoot for a blog entry on this site. Seeing as how its been 7 years since my initial visit, it will be interesting to see the changes in the building.

I have a lot of family who lives in the communities that fed to this school. If any of you were to read this, or anyone else who has information about this school that I have missed, please comment, message or email me.

I77 at Bland, Virginia

I snapped this picture at the spur of the moment right after getting gas at a Kangaroo gas station off exit 52.

Mt Zion United Methodist Church — Coalwood, West Virginia

This weekend while my friend Donny and I were in Coalwood we drove to near where we thought was the end of Coalwood and came across this quaint little church on the hill.

That night when I got home and was looking through the literally hundreds of pictures I took that day while touring McDowell County this picture kept sticking out in my mind. I wanted to know more. What was the story of this church?

According to Homer Hickam’s Memoir “Rocket Boys” and pictures from http://www.coalwoodwestvirginia.com a website maintained by a former resident of Coalwood I can identify this church as Mudhole Church later called Mt Zion United Methodist Church. This was Reverend Richard’s church! Homer spoke of the church and Reverend Richard in his memoir as quoted below:

At the entrance to Mudhole was a tiny wooden church presided over by the Reverend “Little” Richard. He was dubbed “Little” because of his resemblance to the soul singer. Nobody up Mudhole Hollow subscribed to the paper, but whenever I had an extra one, I always left it at the little church, and over the years, the Reverend Richard and I became friends. I loved it when he had a moment to come out on the church porch and tell me a quick Bible story while I listened, astride my bike, fascinated by his sonorous voice. I especially admired his description of Daniel in the lions’ den. When he acted out with bug-eyed astonishment the moment Daniel’s captors looked down and saw their prisoner lounging around in the pit with his arm around the head of a big lion, I laughed appreciatively. “That Daniel, he knew the Lord,” the Reverend summed up with a chuckle while I continued to giggle, “and it made him brave. How about you, Sonny? Do you know the Lord?”
I had to admit I wasn’t certain about that, but the Reverend said it was all right. “God looks after fools and drunks,” he said with a big grin that showed off his gold front tooth, “and I guess he’ll look after you too, Sonny Hickam.” Many a time in the days to come, when I was in trouble, I would think of Reverend Richard and his belief in God’s sense of humor and His fondness for ne’er-do-wells. It didn’t make me as brave as old Daniel, but it always gave me at least a little hope the Lord would let me scrape by.

It makes my heart happy and a little more content to know that this little church is still standing and still maintained in Coalwood today.

Eidson, Tennessee

Eidson, Tennessee is a rural community located on the north side of Clinch Mountain in northern Hawkins County. It is basically the community between Kyles Ford in Hancock County and Rogersville along Highway 70. The community was settled in the 1790s and is named for Samuel Eidson Sr. The community once had it’s own school called Lonesome Pine School.

The community also has it’s own post office still in operation….although it has been targeted as one of the post offices the US Postal Service plans to close in the near future.

The former post office still has the post office sign and decal on the window.

Liggett, Kentucky

Liggett Kentucky was once a thriving coal mining community located at the eastern terminus of Kentucky State Route 72 in Central Harlan County, Kentucky, about 6 miles from the county seat of Harlan. Today, little remains of what was once a busy coal camp. There are still signs that recall the bustling past of the area. There is still work going on in this area, the day that I was here there were trucks coming in and out and you could see workers moving from buildings to other areas. Also there was a watch dog that tried to chase my car back down the road.

Liggett Baptist Church is still in operation and growing strong at Liggett. The church is surrounded by some of the most serene views I have ever witnessed. To find out more about Liggett Baptist Church you can visit their website at www.liggettbaptistchurch.org

The bridge structure of the bridge leading to Liggett even hearkens back to the days of big coal and company constructed infrastructure and towns.