Mount Rogers Combined School — Grayson County, Virginia

Mount Rogers combined school was located along US 58 near Whitetop, Virginia in Western Grayson County. The original part of the building was constructed in the 1930s.
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The building served grades K-12 and at the time of its closing was one of only 2 k-12 facilities left in the state.
In the early 1950s the school recieved a major addition including a gymnasium and lunchroom.

The playground equipment remains on site and appears to be regularly used, probably by neighborhood children.


The schools closing and consolidation was met with resistance of locals in the area worried about longer bus rides for children across curvy winding mountain roads.   Finally on August 10, 2010, Grayson Highlands School opened, leaving Mt Rogers Combined School closed and a part of Grayson County’s past.

Shady Valley Elementary — Johnson County, Tennessee

Shady Valley School is one of the few WPA school buildings still being utilized that I have came across in my travels.
The building was built in 1936.  
Today the school still serves around 50 students.

Stone Mountain School — Hawkins County, Tennessee

When someone closes their eyes and thinks of a rural school, sometimes a log structure is envisioned, but more than usual, that was not the case.

However, that IS the case with this rustic rural school known as Stone Mountain School, located on the back roads of Hawkins County, Tennessee.

The Stone Mountain School was organized and constructed in 1921 by George and Marie Berry with the purpose of educating the children around Pressman’s Home and the Poor Valley area of Hawkins County.

The school would operate until Wednesday, November 11, 1964 when the school would close its doors forever and it’s 20 students were sent another school.

The school building has sense been converted into a residence and was on the market for sale until November 18, 2015 when it was marked as sold.  If you are interested in other pictures from zillow and the listing you can find that by clicking HERE.

Glendale School — Washington County, Tennessee

A few months ago a friend of mine from the tri cities area posted pictures of this beautiful rural, almost gothic looking school.  I had to find it.  Let me tell you, this school is way out there.   There are more twists and turns getting to this school than I can remember.

Thankfully I was able to locate the school on google street view before traveling to the area and that helped.

The school is located only about 7 or 8 miles from Interstate 81 and the Falls Branch exit, but once you get off the interstate you pretty much take every turn you come to, or at least it feels that way.  From information I have found online about the school it was originally constructed around 1913-14 and opened in 1914.  Students would attend Glendale School until 1943 when it closed.

Glendale School is in a field beside Glendale Rd. not far from the intersection of Blackely Creek Rd. and Glendale Rd. in the Locust Mount – Oak Hill Community. This area was first called Locust Mount and then later Oak Hill.

Children from the school attended high school at Sulphur Springs.

Glendale School, situated nine miles southwest of Jonesborough, was one of a few consolidated schools in the county. Land for it had been donated by S.T. Martin and family and a 75-foot corridor to the spring was donated by Davis Barnes. In 1914, Glendale School had three teachers – Principal E. C. Hicks, Myrtle Leonard, and Frances Walker. There were 126 pupils and a daily average attendance of 91. In 1943 the land on which the school was located was sold to Dora Martin and the corridor to the spring was sold to Roscoe Lynch and Glendale School was closed.  The school is now used as a barn for hay storage.

 

Bear Branch One Room School — Letcher County, Kentucky

Since I’ve been roaming the area for old abandoned schools one thing that I havent come across much of is a one room school.  The Bear Branch School is probably one of the most intact and newest constructed one room schools in this part of the country.

Located along state highway 510 in a part of Letcher County almost disected from the rest of the county by mountains and rivers is the community of  Gilly and Gordon near the Harlan and Letcher County Line.   Along the highway when driving through Gordon you will notice a few interesting buildings.  The most interesting and probably historic of these buildings is the old Bear Branch School.

I first came across this old school thanks to someone geotagging it on google maps.  So when you pull up a map of the area and type in ‘school’   several dozen schools pop up.  90% of those are long gone, but once I cruised in on google earth and streetview I realized that this school was still standing and largely in tact.

I had to sort through some confusion when researching this school in large part thanks to my predetermined bias that one room schools were largely built way before when this one was actually constructed.  This was actually the second Bear Branch School.  There had been a school at Bear Branch as early as 1915.  At that time the school had around 60 students.

This Bear Branch School was constructed around 1948 replacing the older Bear Branch School that was a wooden structure.  I had to sort through some confusion when researching this school in large part thanks to my predetermined bias that one room schools were largely built way before when this one was actually constructed.  This was actually the second Bear Branch School.  There had been a school at Bear Branch as early as 1915.  At that time the school had around 60 students ranging in ages from 18 to 6.

While researching for this entry I found several references to this older building, leading me to believe that this building was much older than it actually is.  In a 1949 edition of the Mountain Eagle, a newspaper from the county (Letcher) seat of Whitesburg there is an advertisement for bids on the old school.    Those interested contact Superintendent Martha J Potter.  a pdf image of that newspaper clipping can be viewed here:  Mountain Eagle Article

How progressive, strange and admireable it was to find a woman named as a Superintendent as a school system in rural eastern Kentucky in the 1940s.    In fact, the early 1940s.  Martha Potter was named superintendent of Letcher County Schools in 1943.

In 1963 Letcher County began building new, larger  school centers replacing the old one and two room schools like the one at Bear Branch.  It was recommended that as soon as roads are fixed and transportation was arranged that the 15 students enrolled at Bear Branch be transfered to Kingdom Come Settlement School about 10 miles away in Linefork.

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.