Airmont White

Opening and Closing

Opening 1909 - Closed Spring 1931. Students sent to Philmont.

Physical and Map Location

Mt. Gilead School District during segregation.

35633 Snickersville Turnpike, Purcellville, VA 20132

Petitions
Airmont White School (potential conversion to a "colored" school)

2.5B Yr. 1926 (probable) May. Patrons request that school be kept open. O.L. Emerick wrote the patrons to acknowledg their request that the school not be closed. They had provided a statement of support from the teacher, an accounting of funds raised and a map sowing the location of families. Names of Petitioners (Parents) and number of children attending the school arranged by 3 locations: 1. Airmont: William J. McCarty -2 children, Aurelius Burbin Leonard-3 children, Carl Nicholas Wynkoop-1 child, William Ownsby Whitman-2 children, Thomas Kerfoot Harris - 1 child, Hattie E. Garrett-1, Henry Campress(?)-5 children and Grover Gray-1 child. 2. Silcott Springs: Henry L. Emerick, Robert Hindman, Robert Cecil Hindman, Edgar Hurst, H.W. Embry, Roy Lee Utterback, Sr., Dr. F.L. Piggott?, D.Q. Rhodes, W.M, Grey, Thomas M. Reed, and W.B. Carter, 3. Paxson: William Berkley Beavers, Henry Walter Santmyer, John William Read, W.M. Hardin, S.C. Smallwood, Dr. R. H Cockerille, C. T. Hawthorne, A.J. Tinsman, Charles Rufus Wynkoop, John R. Chamblin, Edgar G. Coffman, Agnes L. (Beavers) Allder, Bertha Lee Fletcher Longerbeam, J.M. Hissmer?, Walter Lampkin Parks. Also, there is a list of family names accounting for the students attending the Airmont school - McCarty, Leonard, Wynkoop, Whitman, Cummings and Peyton, Poland, Reed, Tabor, Hollins. (Names of families who moved away).
2.5B Yr. September 14, 1931. 2.5B Yr 1931 Oppose Conversion of Airmont to Colored. The school system contemplated allowing Blacks to use the former Airmont white school, which had been closed by the time of the petition. Hearing of this possibility, a farmer from Round Hill, protested. We have no information that the contemplated plans were executed, nor to what extent they were actually debated.

Transportation

2.5B. April 2, 1923. Patrons protested based on health and comfort concerns that children might be carried by truck or wagon to Bluemont. Also, do want Airmont closed.
2.5B May 1926 Patrons felt that most children were too small to be transported top another school. Protest contains a list of families who attended the school from Silcott Springs, Airmont and Paxson. Map includes locations of nearby schools/communities.

Walking was a common method of school transportation even before the creation of Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS). It’s believed that students who lived within 3 miles of a school could walk from their home to school. The figure at https://edwinwashingtonproject.org/s/ewp/item/31095 shows the location of the school with a circle representing the area from which students could have walked, back and forth from their home to the school. Travel by horse was also used and could have extended the travel distance.

History

According to a 1923 petition, average attendance was 12 per month from Sept 1922 to March 1923.
1926. Oct 4. Officers of local PTA were elected and a box party was held.
1926 Nov 16. Patron's Day was celebrated and a play was given.
1926 Dec 21 Christmas entertainment.

Instructors

1913: Gordon E. Smith

Later, Ida Bocock, Lucille Phillips were at the Yellow School House in the morning and then at Airmont in the afternoon.

Insurance and Physical Description

Additional Photos

Airmont Student Distribution, 1920's