Virginia Department of Historic Resources
(dhr.virginia.gov)
For Immediate Release
September 24, 2024

Contact:
Ivy Tan
Department of Historic Resources
Marketing & Communications Manager
ivy.tan@dhr.virginia.gov
804-482-6445

8 Historic Sites Added to the Virginia Landmarks Register

—New listings are in the cities of Galax, Lynchburg, and Winchester; in the counties of Charles City, Frederick, and Gloucester; and in the towns of Big Stone Gap and Bluefield—

RICHMOND – Among the eight places recently listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register are three schools that were beneficiaries of the Rosenwald Fund, a program established in 1917 by businessman Julius Rosenwald and Tuskegee Institute founder Booker T. Washington to improve educational opportunities for African Americans in the South; a historic district where three Civil War battles took place; and a local bakery that expanded into a large business in the Southeastern United States.

The Commonwealth’s Board of Historic Resources approved these properties for designation on the Virginia Landmarks Register (VLR) during its quarterly public meeting on September 19, 2024, in Bath County. The VLR is the commonwealth’s official list of places of historic, architectural, archaeological, and cultural significance.

At the conclusion of its meeting, the Board approved the following places for listing in the VLR:

In the state’s Eastern Region,

• The Parrish Hill School in Charles City County provided education for Black students during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation in Virginia’s public schools. The school was built in 1920 using funds from the local Black community, the county, and the Rosenwald Fund. Construction of the Parrish Hill School meant that Black children in Parrish Hill no longer had to walk long distances to attend schools outside of their community. The single-story, two-classroom school closed in 1959, when the county began efforts to consolidate small schools.

• Constructed in 1915 at the request of local parishioners of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Charles City County, the Mica School provided education for Black children during 20th-century segregation in Virginia’s public school system until it closed in 1951. Records show that the school received Rosenwald funds, even though it was built before the start of the official dispersal of program funds in 1917. The Mica School offered classes taught by a single teacher and accommodated as many as 50 students in multiple grade levels at a time. Community residents managed the school’s operations, including the maintenance and repair of the building and outhouses as well as raising funds for supplies and books.

• Established in Gloucester County in 1867 by a small group of congregants from Zion Poplars Baptist Church, Union Zion Baptist Church is one of the earliest churches founded and built by emancipated African Americans in the county in the years following the end of the Civil War. Union Zion Baptist Church and its associated cemetery, alternately known as Union Zion Cemetery and Pole Bridge Cemetery, were part of a larger movement in the South during the mid- to late-19th century in which congregations within Black communities grew independently from that of White churches and created their own spaces for worship and gatherings.

In Virginia’s Northern Region,

• The Kernstown Battlefield Historic District is composed of the 315-acre Pritchard-Grim Farm and the noncontiguous 37.5-acre Sandy Ridge Tract, both of which are in Frederick County, with portions of the farm located in the City of Winchester. Three historic buildings dating to the late-18th and mid-19th centuries—the Pritchard House (1854), the Pritchard Cabin (ca. 1790), and the Tenant House (ca. 1858-59)—serve as the architectural anchors of the Pritchard-Grim property, which has been farmed for more than 250 years. The Kernstown Battlefield Historic District was the site of three important Civil War battles: First Kernstown (1862), Second Winchester (1863), and Second Kernstown (1864).

In the state’s Western Region,

• Built from 1952-1953, James A. Bland High School in the Wise County town of Big Stone Gap provided education for Black students from 1954 to 1965. The school reflected the efforts of African Americans in southwest Virginia to educate their children despite the challenges of systemic racism and discrimination during segregation in Virginia’s public schools. Bland High School is also associated with the Black educator Cato H. Shorter, who worked in the school system for many years before serving as principal of the school throughout its years of operation. Bland High School closed in 1965 after the county continued efforts to resist integration of its public schools. The school reopened as an integrated school in 1969. In 1987, the property was adapted into use as Big Stone Gap Town Hall.

• The Rosenwald Felts School was the only Rosenwald-funded school constructed in the City of Galax. Built using funds from the local African American community, the Rosenwald Fund, and contributions from Thomas L. Felts, the white co-owner of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, the original part of the school was constructed with brick masonry on a stone foundation in 1926, based on the Rosenwald Two Teacher Community School Plan. A large addition was constructed in 1956, wrapping around the east and south sides and a portion of the north side of the original building. The school continued to serve Black students until it closed in 1969. During its years of operation, the school became a social hub of the African American community in Galax. The school building now serves as a community center and houses the local Head Start educational program.

• Founded in 1913, Sta-Kleen Bakery in the City of Lynchburg quickly grew from a small local establishment into a statewide and regional business that sold its products across Virginia and in West Virginia and North Carolina. In 1938 Sta-Kleen Bakery joined the Quality Bakers of America Cooperative, Inc. (QBA), after winning several awards from the cooperative. As a member of QBA, Sta-Kleen became a local producer and seller of the nationwide brand Sunbeam Bread. The building that housed the former bakery is a large structure, utilitarian in design, built in several phases from 1913 through the 1940s. Although vacant in recent years, the building remains in fair condition with many historic materials and features intact.

• The Bluefield Commercial Historic District embodies the growth and prosperity experienced in the Tazewell County town of Bluefield—formerly known as Graham—starting in the late 19th century, when the rise of coalmining and the expansion of the Norfolk and Western Railroad brought unprecedented economic opportunities to the region. The historic district continues to serve as the cultural and commercial hub for the surrounding agricultural community and includes shops, professional offices, financial institutions, restaurants, and supply stores. Built between 1895 and circa 1970, most of the commercial buildings in the historic district reflect the architectural styles favored during the Reconstruction and post-World War I eras in Virginia’s history.

DHR will forward the documentation for the newly listed VLR sites to the National Park Service for nomination to the NRHP. Listing a property in the state or national registers is honorary and sets no restrictions on what owners may do with their property. The designation is foremost an invitation to learn about and experience authentic and significant places in Virginia’s history. Designating a property to the state or national registers—either individually or as a contributing building in a historic district—provides an owner the opportunity to pursue historic rehabilitation tax credit improvements to the building. Tax credit projects must comply with the Secretary of Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.

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