Pilot School, in the Little River area of Montgomery County, provided free education to local White students from its construction in 1921 through 1963 as part of Virginia’s public school system. Located in the unincorporated community of Pilot, the school is a four-room building that supported three teachers serving students from kindergarten through 9th grade. Built in the vernacular architectural style, the two-story wood-frame school possesses a strong rectangular massing and a covered entry porch. The interior consists of a two-room plan with a front transverse passage that originally supported two identical staircases at each side of the front entrance. A partition could be lowered between the two rooms on the upper level to separate classes. During the school’s years of operation, students were typically taught a variety of subjects including reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography. The last class was held in 1962, and in 1963 the county sold the property to Lewin M. Poff, who then deeded it to the Pilot Community Center to be used for family reunions, ball games, and other social functions. Residents worked together to save the building and revive the spirit of the Pilot community in 2019. At the time of its listing in the registers, the arts outreach organization WVarts used the building to serve and educate local citizens about Pilot as well as Floyd and Montgomery counties. Pilot School is the only surviving public school from the early 20th century in Montgomery County.
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Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia