Bluestone-Harmony Academy 1--West Façade
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[8 photos in this series] This building in Keysville, Virginia, probably the last vestige of Bluestone-Harmony Academy, is no more. It was demolished a couple of years ago. Supposedly this structure dating from about 1920 was a dormitory on the grounds of what began in 1898 as Bluestone-Harmony Academic and Industrial School for black students. At a time when education for African-Americans was scarce to non-existent, a group of black Baptist churches (the Bluestone Association) established a boarding school that attracted students from across the state. The state chartered the school in 1899 and the school prospered after World War I. Located on a 100-acre tract, cultivation of the land helped to defray financial costs along with student tuition and support from the Bluestone Association. The school closed in 1950. The property was eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places but that was not to be. This move to provide education for black students predated the efforts of Julius Rosenwald to assist in establishing schools for African-Americans throughout the South.
These photos date from 2011, over 60 years since the closing of the school. The building shown is a 3-story, wood clad structure with windows and most doors blocked. The main façade is the west but is replicated on the east; the shorter north and south façades also are also duplicates in positioning of windows and doors. The roof appears to be metal and reasonably flat. The foundation is brick piers which provided support for the structure.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Bluestone-Harmony Academy 1--West Façade
This is a creative commons image, which you may freely use by linking to this page. Please respect the photographer and his work.
[8 photos in this series] This building in Keysville, Virginia, probably the last vestige of Bluestone-Harmony Academy, is no more. It was demolished a couple of years ago. Supposedly this structure dating from about 1920 was a dormitory on the grounds of what began in 1898 as Bluestone-Harmony Academic and Industrial School for black students. At a time when education for African-Americans was scarce to non-existent, a group of black Baptist churches (the Bluestone Association) established a boarding school that attracted students from across the state. The state chartered the school in 1899 and the school prospered after World War I. Located on a 100-acre tract, cultivation of the land helped to defray financial costs along with student tuition and support from the Bluestone Association. The school closed in 1950. The property was eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places but that was not to be. This move to provide education for black students predated the efforts of Julius Rosenwald to assist in establishing schools for African-Americans throughout the South.
These photos date from 2011, over 60 years since the closing of the school. The building shown is a 3-story, wood clad structure with windows and most doors blocked. The main façade is the west but is replicated on the east; the shorter north and south façades also are also duplicates in positioning of windows and doors. The roof appears to be metal and reasonably flat. The foundation is brick piers which provided support for the structure.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.