In Rob Langdon’s well-written and informative letter to the editor, he asks an important question for our community: “Shall We Save Hillsboro School?” With the profound transformation of the Crozet area that has taken place over the same years the school has been falling down, it seems we, as a community, would welcome the opportunity to preserve such a critical part of local history and culture that is still with us. Rob is a master craftsman who has skillfully guided numerous historical preservations, and I have full faith in his observations and assessments of the needs of and possibilities for the school. I hope the community will rally and encourage the owners of the school to meet with Rob and discuss the options and costs of preservation. As a community, I am sure we can find resources to support this worthy and important project before another Crozet cultural touchstone is lost forever.
Mia Taylor
Crozet (resident since 1970)
I hope the community will respond to Rob Langdon’s excellent letter, in which he suggests saving and restoring historic Hillsboro School. The deterioration of the building is shocking. One might think it beyond repair, but I have seen numerous examples of Rob’s construction and historic renovation. If he says it can be saved, I’m sure restoration is possible. It would be a shame to lose such a valuable piece of Crozet history.
Jo Stanley
Crozet
I loved Rob Langdon’s passion for both history and community in his Letter to the Editor regarding Hillsboro School. If others are interested, I would also participate in researching ways to save this charming structure.
Part of my work has been in Progressive Education, and, especially after the pandemic, experiential field trips are one of the markers of the true abundance in our community. Rob and I have talked often of founding a local history museum here. I’m a relative newcomer (8 years or so) and my feet continue to sink deeper and deeper into the lore, the ecological and geological wonder, and the layers and layers of history beneath us. On my very first walk here, I found a small quartz arrowhead, and there’s nothing like sharing tangible artifacts, or salamanders, or the many truly exceptional marvels every three feet here, with the eager eyes of a young child. And with that, as is the history of history as they say, the very human story that still materially exists here and there, and of which we are an ongoing part. Layers of stories of painful, real struggles and suffering, along with many epic human achievements during different stages of our intertwined development.
Coming from Pittsburgh, whose own mixed history is buried in slag and shale, I quickly exclaimed to a local that I had found the Land of Oz. Sure enough, he told me back in the day, there used to be caps made up in honor of this town with that very expression. How can we capture a tiny, tiny bit of the immense capital from various highly successful and profitable ventures here, and convince the will of the people that it is still worth saving forgotten places like the schoolhouse? Yes, we have a myriad of newly built, gorgeous spaces in which to experience and grow the community we so dearly missed during lockdown. But I believe in an abundance mentality in this highly exalted place. And there’s nothing in a book, a digital picture, or any form of recording that can take the place of actually holding that arrowhead, touching the ground upon which it has rested over the years; of peering under that rock to see one of the many abundant species of amphibians known only to our area; or to touch the restored wood shingles of a little schoolhouse along a backcountry road—to exist in the same space as the young children of a hundred years ago and imagine what it was like back then. Experiences that are impossible to replicate artificially. Experiences that include us in their ongoing stories, that might ease our discomfort at the thought of being forgotten, too. I’d love to meet up with others who feel the same.
Jess Burns
Crozet
In response to the Hillsboro School, my name is Wilfred F. Wilson III and I am a 74-year-old Black male. My mom was Marjorie (Brown) Wilson who attended the Hillsboro School starting at age six in 1934. She was very proud of attending that school along with her brothers, Granville Jr. and Richard Brown, and her sisters, Merilyn and Nancy Brown. As a very young guy I remember the stories she would tell me and my siblings about the days of walking to school and how much she enjoyed the school itself.
It is very disturbing to see the school in the shape that it is in today. It is a real historic landmark that should be restored and the community should really get behind getting that done. I don’t live in the area, but it was a real treat to ride by and see where my mom and a lot of my relatives went to school in the earlier years and now it is an eyesore in its shape. Again, the Hillsboro School was a school for Blacks living around Hillsboro and the surrounding communities. If something is not done, the whole building will fall and a great piece of history will be gone for good. Please get behind this restoration and get it done.
Wilfred F. Wilson
Charlottesville
My Life and Memory of Hillsboro School
Hillsboro School was a school for Blacks living around Hillsboro and surrounding communities. I, Richard Brown, went to school there at the age of six years old. Tuesday, September 2, 1941, was my first day at Hillsboro School. My teacher was Mrs. Williams from Norfolk, Virginia. She would stay at Mountain View Inn, a local boarding house for African Americans from Monday night through Friday afternoon and then go back home. Mrs. Williams taught at Hillsboro School until May of 1943.
We had several substitute teachers from the start of the school year in September 1943 for most of that year. Around September 1944, we had a teacher from Freetown named Beatrice Winston, who stayed until 1945. The last teacher at Hillsboro School was Mrs. Mary Tate Davis from Staunton, Virginia, who was there through my last semesters at the school. Around 1950 the Hillsboro School closed for good. These are my memories of the school years. The Hillsboro School was like my second home.
In 2009 or 2010, we had a real bad snowstorm. The south side of the building, which was vacant at the time, was laid flat on the ground as a result. It remained an eyesore until 2013, when I could not take looking at it anymore. So, I got my tools together and went to work cleaning up the collapsed portion of the old school. I worked on it off and on for fifty hours or more to get it ready for the dumpster. Mr. James Jackson got some people to help load the debris into the dumpster, and Mr. Sterling Durette also came out to help as well.
In October 2023, I, Richard Brown, and Rob Langdon met with a couple of gentlemen affiliated with the old building in hopes of getting some information and to discuss the possibility of saving the building. Instead, the only thing we got was hurt feelings.
One of the gentlemen who, apparently, is the current trustee of the Hillsboro Community Center, immediately dismissed us by telling us that the building “was not worth saving.” The other fellow, a member of the Piedmont Baptist Church who was once listed on the Board of the Hillsboro Community Center, was also at our meeting. However, I was told in no uncertain terms, that the church has nothing to do with the building.
I think the building in its current state is a disgrace to the church and community members. I firmly believe that there is something going on about that building that is not being said, and it is up to the church members and concerned community members to find out what is going on.
Now, here it is 2024, and the remaining portion of the old school is just about ready to come down. It’s only a matter of days at this point. I’d also like to say that the building poses a danger to adults and children in the community. Somebody will be subject to a huge lawsuit should someone enter the building and the building collapses or get hurt in some other way. At the very least, the property should be fenced off to avoid this from happening.
I know that Rob, a board-certified, licensed, and insured building contractor, could fix the old school building to look just like it did originally. I have seen what he has done with some older, dilapidated houses in Freetown. Rob doesn’t want the old building for personal gains, but he would dearly love to see it brought back to life and preserve the memories and history it represents before it is too late. I would gladly give my time to help fix the building for the love of the school. I am sure there are many others in the community who would like to help as well, and if so, now is the time to speak up. Like I said, I have seen some of the fine work Rob has done with buildings in worse shape than the school is.
Richard Brown
Freetown
