OF MY WEST VIRGINIA SCHOOL PROJECT
IN ADDITION TO PHOTOS, THIS PAGE CONTAINS THE LOCATIONS OF OLD SCHOOLS FROM SELECTED COUNTIES
All you will need to do is to click on the titles.
It wasn't until after the Civil War that there were publicly supported schools in the area. Even then, though laws had been passed establishing publc education, it wasn't until the 1870's that schools were established in many places. The wealthy, who were accostomed to sending their children to private institutions, were not inclined to pay for the education of the poorer classes. Despite this opposition, public schools began to multiply in West Virignia.
Before the war, there were private instiutions of various kinds. One of the ruder types was often the subscription school. Some private individuls built schools upon their own land and charged their neighbors a fee to educate their children. The log school pictured below may have been a subscription school.
The were quite a few of the type of private schools known as "acadamies" in what is now West Virginia. There varied in their ownership, their students, and their goals of education. Some were religious in nature catering either to men or women. Some were socal and of course there were those who folowed a serious program and produced educated young folks. The Acadamie at St. George in Tucker County, pictured below, is one of many of the old acadamies.
Photo by Okey L. King
The Buffalo Academy is said to be the oldest such school in the Kanawha Valley. This photo may date from the Civil War Era.
SECOND CREEK ACADEMEY
This is Glace school from an old post card.
This photo of Glace School in northern Monroe County was given to me by Elmer and Mary Adwell as a birthday present.
Teachers in the old schools were issued teaching certificates. N. B. (Doc) McDowell writes the following in his autobiography Writings of Mark Crayon, "There were five grades of certificates---No. 1, very good; No. 2, good; No. 3., medium; No 4,. below medium; no 5., indefferent. There were no No. 5's granted, except to some old farmers to teach colored schools. There were no colored teachers at that time. Sometimes a regular teacher would teach a colored school" (McDowell page 25).
Yesterday's schoolkids didn't have the fancy playground equipment that children have today, so they had to invent their own as these old time school children did with their "teeter-totter."
A school at Red House in Putnam County, West Virginia during the depression.
The years of the great depression were hard on school children across the nation, but the education process continued. In fact, in 1933, during the middle of the the depression, the students of the history class at Nuttall High School in Lookout of Fayette County wrote and had published their own history of their area. This was at the time that the coal and lumber boom was coming to an end in West Virginia.
These old rural scools persisted intil the 1950s when most had their doors closed and their pupils bused into town. A few persisted into the 1960s. Greenbrier County was cited in the 1950s as having some of the best one-roomed schools in the nation. It was about the time of the closing of the rural schools that schools were also intregated. Greenbrier County was slow in intgregating their schools and had to be ordered by the court to do so. A black school once stood not too many yards from the door of my home. I would have like to have a picture, but, there is not a trace of it now.
I believe that this photo was made at Caldwell at the location of the old school which stood on Old Mill Road. I believe that it is Greenbrier Mountain that rises in the background. The last school at Caldwell stood in the middle of town above Route 60.
photo by Okey L. King
This old school sets on the bank above Rt. 219 not far south of the Indain Creek Covered Bridge in Monroe County. I have passed it many times.
photo by Okey L. King
This faded-red school house sets in a field on the hill above Pence Springs in Summers County.
photo by Okey L. King
This is Fry School on Muddy Creek Mountain. It still stands about two and three-quarter miles south from the North end of the Mountain. Other schools on Muddy Creek Mountain were or are: Hanger School on South end of the mountain; Hawver School on Fort Springs Road about one-half mile from the top; Kramer School at intersection of Little John Road; McQueen School about one-half mile West on Asbury Road; Pine Grove School about three-quarter mile North of the Muddy Creek Mountain/Asbury Road.
GREENBRIER COUNTY SCHOOLS
I believe that this is the Rock Castle School on Thirteenmile Creek in Mason County. My mother Edna Luverna Stone, attended this school as well as the Morining Star School. Can anyone identify the school master?
These are three of my mother's classmates.
Can anyone identify them?
My father attended the Big Spruce School. Like many other old schools, the Big Spruce School served for more than one purpose. Since it was close to Spruce cemetery, a number of funerals, including Sara Barr Dunham's, were held at Big Spruce School.
MASON COUNTY SCHOOLS 
JACKSON COUNTY SCHOOLS
photo by Okey L. King
Out on Turkey Ridge in rugged northern Monroe County between Glace and Hollywood, you will find Forrest Run School.
MONROE COUNTY SCHOOLS WITH PHOTOS OF SECOND CREEK SCHOOL
photo by Okey L. King 
Spring Hill School on Rayburn Draft in Monroe County is now a home. Other schools in the Rayburn Draft Area were: Beechbend School, Highland Green School, Oak Grove School, Pleasant Valley School, and Second Creek School
photos by Okey L. King
FAYETTE COUNTY SCHOOLS
The following is a link to a great page from Putnam County Schools. Click on it and add to your knowledge concerning old schools.
Lett School
Thank you Putnam County Schools!
An Article on Hagar Grade School in Clay Couunty by Alice Faye Bragg
POCOHONTAS COUNTY SCHOOLS
SUMMERS COUNTY SCHOOLS
Union District/Dunbar High School
Dunbar High School began in 1916 as Union District High School with one teacher in one room. The teacher was A.C. Reger and the school was located on Frederick Stree, now 19th Street at the current site of Mound Elementary.
In 1920, the school was moved into rented space on the corner of Ohio Avenue and Park Street which is now 12th Street.
In 1924 the school was housed in a new brick building on Myres Avenue.
In 1933 the school was renamed Dunbar High School.
In 1955 a new senior high building opened on Ashton Street which is now 27th Street.
In 1990 Dunbar High closed and students were absorbed in to South Charleston High School. The old Dunbar high School is now Dunbar Junior High. A monument built in memory of Dunbar High School is now located on the corner of 13th Street and Myres Avenue where the school now stood until it was torn down last year.
I attended classes in the old school. When I was in the 7th grade, all six grades were together. While I was in the 8th grade, school was in shifts. The senior high attended in the morning, and the junior high attended in the afternoon. When I was a 9th grader, the junior high had the old school to itself. I graduated in 1959 when the High School was in the new building. I would have liked to have attended the reunion this year, but I will not be there.