The King William Training School was built for African Americans with the assistance of the Julius Rosenwald Building Fund, which provided funds and a building plan. The complex, built in 1922-23, consisted of a four-room school, a home economics building, a shop building, privies, and a baseball field and other recreational areas. The school’s origins traced to 1902 when Rev. Samuel B. Holmes persuaded the Pamunkey Baptist Association to construct a two-room school on his property. That school eventually relocated and led to construction of the King William Training School, under the authority of the county, which had two other Rosenwald schools. To build the training school, the county’s largest Rosenwald, the African American community raised $7,900, the Rosenwald fund contributed $1,100, and the county a mere $100. Initially the school offered education for grades 1-9; in 1946, it added grades 10-12, and in 1962 it ceased to be used for educational purposes, after a new school opened and the Pamunkey Baptist Association purchased the building for a recreation center for senior citizens.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
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