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Clermont Elementary School

GPS Coordinates: 38.7950989, -77.1106827
Closest Address: 5720 Clermont Drive, Alexandria, VA 22310

Clermont Elementary School

Here follows a history of the school as published on the Fairfax County Public Schools website:

Clermont Elementary School was established in 1968. Construction of our school began in December 1967 and was not completed in time for the opening of schools the following September, so for the first three months of the school year Clermont’s students were housed at Bush Hill Elementary School. Clermont officially opened its doors to students on December 2, 1968, following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Our first principal was Peter M. Manno.

Our school was designed by the architecture firm of Pickett, Siess and Hook, and was built by M. L. Whitlow, Inc., at a cost of $638,100.

Fun Fact
Did you know that Clermont Elementary School opened during the first year that Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) began offering kindergarten in all schools?

Fewer Students, Fewer Schools
During the 1970s, enrollment at Clermont peaked at a high of 394 students in 1975 and gradually declined to a low of 252 students by 1979.

Declining enrollment was not unique to Clermont. Schools throughout eastern Fairfax County experienced similar challenges at this time because there were fewer families with young children living in the area.

Prior to the implementation of full-day kindergarten county-wide in the 2000s, kindergarten students attended school half of the day in either a morning or afternoon grouping.

Enrollment continued to decline at Clermont until 1980, when the closure of Wilton Woods Elementary School boosted the enrollment at Clermont to approximately 400 students.

Additions and Renovations
In 1981, Fairfax County voters approved school bond funding to renovate and build an addition to Clermont Elementary School. The renovation project began construction in the spring of 1983 and was completed at a cost of $732,400. Prior to this time, physical education classes were held in a two-classroom wing on the north side of our building. During the renovation, the gymnasium was attached to this wing and the P.E. classroom was converted into a music room.

Pictured above is Clermont Elementary School in 1990. The gymnasium (highlighted in blue) was attached to an existing two-classroom wing of the building (highlighted in red). These two classrooms were used at various times for kindergarten, physical education, and music. Courtesy of the Fairfax County Park Authority.

It’s hard to imagine today, but Clermont Elementary School did not have a gymnasium from 1968 to 1984. Did you know that prior to 1990, Clermont Elementary School did not have air conditioning? On warm days, teachers would open their classroom windows to allow the air to circulate. Although it did not happen very often, there were days in the warmer months that FCPS closed schools due to excessive heat.

In the summer of 2013, construction began on a two-year, $13.6 million renovation of Clermont Elementary School. Follow the progress of the construction in this series of photographs.

In the News
In 1982, the Washington Post published an article entitled No More Dull Essays – These Kids Are Writing Books! The article highlighted a revamped reading and writing program at Clermont that encouraged students to write, illustrate, and bind their own books. The completed books were placed in an area called the “Young Author’s Corner,” and students were encouraged to read their peers’ work.

What’s in a Name?
Have you ever wondered how Clermont Elementary School got its name? Find out in this video produced for the Fairfax County Public Schools cable television channel Red Apple 21:

Clermont Elementary School opened in 1968. The name Clermont refers to a historic manor house that used to be located near the site of Clermont Elementary in the late 1700s. Clermont was owned by Benjamin and Elizabeth Dulaney. Elizabeth was the daughter of Daniel French who is credited with building historic Pohick Church. Clermont was very large with two parlors, eleven bedrooms and many outbuildings.
In 1833, Clermont was purchased by General John Mason, a son of George Mason of Gunston Hall. Major General Fitzhugh Lee, a former governor of Virginia and nephew of Robert E. Lee, was born at Clermont in 1835. In 1849, Clermont was sold to French Forrest, a United States naval officer during the Civil War.
Forrest resigned from the Navy and joined the Confederacy. Soon after, Clermont was confiscated by the Union Army and used as a smallpox hospital. The hospital treated soldiers, freed slaves and people from the surrounding community. In September 1865, the army vacated Clermont and laborers were ordered to decontaminate the house by burning the remaining bedding and furnishings. However, the fire spread and engulfed Clermont in flames. Today, Clermont's storied history is preserved in its namesake Clermont Elementary School.

Our Golden Anniversary
In 2018, Clermont students, staff, and families, past and present, celebrated our school’s 50th anniversary. Take a moment to watch this video slideshow created by John Eisinger for the 50th anniversary celebration.

Our Principals
Thirteen principals have led Clermont Elementary School since our founding in 1968.
Peter M. Manno (1968 – 1974)
Regis R. Lacey (1974–77).
Margaret Roebling Robinson (1977 – 1979)
Gioia Caiola Forman (1979 – 1984)
Elizabeth A. Henderson (1984 – 1986)
Elsie Jo “E. J.” Whitley (1986 – 1989)
Robert Keller (1989 – 1995)
Steven M. Adleberg (1995 – 1996)
Linda White (1996 – 2000)
Jeannine S. Tate (2000 – 2005)
Janet Molan (2005 – 2013)
Anne Stokowski (2013 – 2019)
Roxanne Salata (2019 – Present)


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The History of Clermont Plantation:

This history was written for Clermont Elementary School’s 30th anniversary.

Thirty years ago Clermont Elementary School opened. Long ago Indians used this area as their hunting grounds. They stopped here on their annual hunting expeditions to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

There was a prominent Alexandria man, Benjamin Dulany, who owned a summer home in Clermont. His family supported the Torries in the Revolutionary War. Although he didn’t have the same political views as George Washington, they were very good friends. Mr. Dulany had a favorite horse, Blueskin. He gave Blueskin to George Washington as a present. This was the same horse George Washington rode in the Battle of Princeton. Mr. Dulany married a girl from Rose Hill. She was George Washington’s god child. They eloped to his Clermont summer home which was located close to the railroad tracks on Clermont Drive.

Benjamin Tasker Dulany (1752-1818)

George Mason had a son named John Mason. John Mason helped to build the Potomac Canal and invested in the development of the steamship. When he purchased the Dulany Plantation he named his new home Clermont, after the steamship. The area known as the Gladden Tract was also used by the Indians for hunting and camping grounds. Indian arrowheads and a stone axe have been found in and around the development. The Indians freely roamed the land until the late 1700’s, but after the Revolutionary War the Gladden tract underwent some dramatic changes.

The land was purchased by a family by the name of Stanford. The Stanfords owned not only Wellington Green but also portions of Clermont, Burgundy, and Wilton Woods as well. They established a small plantation and gave their home the name of Burgundy Farm. When Mr. Stanford died he didn’t know which of his two sons to leave his land to, so he solved the problem by dividing the land in half and giving each son half. The eastern portion kept the name Burgundy Farm and the western portion was called Evergreen Farm.

Around 1800 Evergreen Farm was purchased by the Fowles, a merchant family from Alexandria. Around 1870 they built a farm home known as the Evergreen House. In the 1850s Ellen “Nellie” Bernard Fowle was born. On April 19, 1871, she married a former Confederate General, Fitzhugh Lee. Fitzhugh Lee was born in the Clermont Plantation House which once stood in the extreme northern portion of the Clermont Woods Development. Clermont at the time was owned by General John Mason, the son of George Mason.

Fitzhugh Lee (1835-1905). Fitzhugh Lee was a Confederate cavalry general in the American Civil War, the 40th Governor of Virginia, and a general in the United States Army during the Spanish-American War.

Fitzhugh grew up on Clermont and at the age of fourteen enrolled in an Episcopal boarding school in Catonsville, Maryland. There he excelled in academics and in 1852 he received appointment to West Point Military Academy. In 1859 Fitzhugh joined an army expedition on the Texas frontier, where he had an encounter with a Comanche Indian. Fitzhugh was wounded and eventually resigned from the Army to offer his services to the Confederacy. He served in the First Virginia Cavalry under General “Jeb” Stuart. He distinguished himself in battle and rose through the ranks quickly. After the war Fitzhugh took a loyalty oath to the Union and became a leading advocate of southern reconciliation with the north. The New York Times wrote on his death:

"There is no man in the South and no man in the Unites States, who contributed more than Fitzhugh Lee to forming, after the division of the Civil War, “a more perfect union."

As time when on, the Gladden tract was sold to the Virginia Concrete Company for use as a gravel quarry. Soil geologists from Fairfax County surveyed the land and took soil samples. It was found that this land was once underwater and was part of the Atlantic shoreline in prehistoric times, long before the age of the dinosaurs. Large quantities of marine clay were found and fossils of prehistoric crustaceans known as trilobites can still be found there, but most important, large deposits of gravel were found in the land. The company concentrated its mining efforts on such other properties they possessed like the sites of present day Manchester Lakes and Kingstowne.

In 1965 Virginia Concrete commenced gravel mining operations in the area. Because the area was experiencing a population boom the housing developments in the area were full of angry citizens who did not want a gravel mine in their neighborhood. The Civic Association of Clermont Woods, Wilton Woods, Ridgeview Estates, Winslow, Burgundy, and Franconia banded together and voiced their complaint to the county. All mining operations were halted in the Gladden Tract after an injunction was imposed.

In 1967 the government purchased the land which was to be the new Clermont School. Clermont first opened at Bush Hill in September 1968 and halfway through the year opened its doors on Clermont Drive.

In 1969 Virginia Concrete Company put the Gladden tract up for sale. Due to the “baby boom” at the time, a concern arose that there were not going to be enough schools in our area to handle the growing number of students. Edison High School had recently been completed but many felt we might need an additional high school. The Fairfax County School Board purchased 40.6 acres of the Gladden Tract along Franconia Road as a future site for the new school. Later, when the population began to level off, there was obviously no need for the new high school, so the land was relinquished from the school system to the Fairfax County Park Authority. The Park Authority built a baseball diamond on it and a soccer field and today you know this piece of land as Clermont Park.

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Award-winning local historian and tour guide in Franconia and the greater Alexandria area of Virginia.

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ADDRESS

Nathaniel Lee

c/o Franconia Museum

6121 Franconia Road

Alexandria, VA 22310

franconiahistory@gmail.com

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