Florence Jodzies: Vale School to Community House.

After the school closed in 1931, the building remained knitted into the farming community of Vale, where in 1934 Florence and Harry Jodzies moved to Harmony Farm, a short distance from the abandoned schoolhouse. Mrs. Jodzies had worked for the Maryland Extension Service and knew about a program, also available in Virginia, that helped farm women learn skills to improve their families’ lives. She persuaded her neighbors to form the Vale Home Demonstration Club and five of the first ten club meetings were held at her home. In 1935 she led a crusade to convince the Fairfax County School Board to let the Vale Club convert the old school into a community house. This 1938 image is the earliest known photo of the school readapted as the Community House after the women brought in a piano, heating and cooking stoves, and benches, tables, and lamps. (Photo: Vale Club Archives)