On a promontory above the Montgomery County town of Christiansburg, the Old Christiansburg Industrial Institute (Hill School) and the Schaeffer Memorial Baptist Church, both built in 1885, are monuments in the social, educational, and religious history of the region’s African American community. Through the early efforts of Capt. Charles S. Schaeffer, an agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau and later an ordained Baptist pastor, formal instruction was begun for the area’s Blacks in 1866, several years before the public school system was established. Technical, academic, and religious training were emphasized during Schaeffer’s thirty-year affiliation. In 1895 the school was reorganized under the direction of Booker T. Washington, who instituted a much-expanded curriculum. The church, with its 1888 frame annex, remains in active use. Industrial training continued at the Hill School until 1953. Since 1967 the Old Christiansburg Industrial Institute school building has served as a community center.
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