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Mon, 06.10.1867

The Howland Chapel School (Virginia) Opens

Howland Chapel School

*The Howland Chapel School was opened on this date in 1867. 

This historic school was for Black students near Heathsville, Northumberland County, Virginia. The building is a rare, little-altered Reconstruction-era schoolhouse built to serve the children of former slaves.

The building's construction was funded by New York educator, reformer, and philanthropist Emily Howland, for whom it is named. It was a schoolhouse until 1958 and serves as a museum, community center, and adult education facility. 

It was built as a one-story, gable-fronted frame building measuring approximately 26 feet by 40 feet. It featured board-and-batten siding and distinctive bargeboards with dentil soffits. The interior has a single room divided by a later central partition formed by sliding, removable doors. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. 

New Poem Each Day

Poetry Corner

In Orangeburg my brothers did the African twist around a bone-fire they'd built at the gate to keep the hunkies out. The day before they'd caught one shooting... IN ORANGEBURG MY BROTHERS DID by A. B. Spellman.
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