Groveton Farm (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact site of Collard's farmhouse at Groveton Farm. No visible remains exist.


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

What's in a Name?
Groveton Elementary School takes its name from the surrounding community, but have you ever wondered how the name Groveton originated? It’s a story that begins in 1833 with a gentleman named Samuel Collard. Learn more in this video produced for Fairfax County Public Schools’ cable television channel Red Apple 21:

Groveton Elementary School opened on its present site in 1972. The name Groveton can be traced back to the nineteenth century to a farm once owned by the Collard family. In 1833, Samuel Collard purchased 224 acres of land along both sides of the road from Alexandria to Mount Vernon, a road we now call Route 1. When Collard passed away in 1852, 166 acres of this property passed to his son, John Ricketts Collard. In September 1859, John Ricketts Collard advertised 160 acres of this property for rent in the Alexandria Gazette newspaper, calling it by the name Groveton farm. It is believed the farm was called Groveton for a grove of apple trees on the property. In 1875, John Ricketts Collard passed away and was buried in the family cemetery at his father's home, Mount Pleasant. One year later, the Mount Vernon District school board took one acre of land from Groveton Farm by imminent domain to build a schoolhouse.

The schoolhouse was constructed close to the present day intersection of Popkins Lane and Route 1. It was referred to as Kirby's schoolhouse in several Alexandria Gazette articles published in the 1880's, but was more commonly known as the Groveton School. The school was destroyed by fire in 1888 and replaced by a frame building which still stands in this photograph taken in 1918. The second Groveton school is visible at the top of the hill on the right. The winding curving road in the foreground is the old alignment of Route 1, which gave rise to this area being known as Snake Hill.

School History: The Kirby / Groveton School (1876-1925)

Fairfax County Public Schools was founded in 1870 with the passage of the Virginia Public Free Schools Act and the new Virginia constitution. During the early years of the school system, most children attended school in one-room schoolhouses where a single teacher taught children in grades one through seven. Administratively, the county was divided into six magisterial districts. Each district had its own School Board comprised of three trustees. The Groveton community was located in the Mount Vernon District and, unfortunately, very few records from this district’s school trustees have survived.

In January 1876, the Fairfax County Circuit Court appointed commissioners to survey a tract of land belonging to John Collard on the Old Mount Vernon Road (present day Route 1). The School Trustees of Mount Vernon District—Eben E. Mason, Richard L. Nevitt, and Frank F. Triplett—wanted to acquire a portion of the Collard property by eminent domain for a school site.

The plat for the Groveton School lot was recorded as part of the condemnation proceedings. Courtesy of the Fairfax County Circuit Court – Historic Records Center.

In March 1876, the Circuit Court ordered the property condemned and directed the trustees to pay $75 in compensation to the property owner. A short time later, a one-room schoolhouse was constructed on the site.

The Kirby School
The one-room school was generally referred to as the Kirby School in reference to James Owen Kerby, a son-in-law of John Collard. On most records the school’s name was spelled Kirby with an “i,” but there are a few instances where it was spelled with an “e.” James Kerby’s name was incorrectly printed as “Y. Owen Kerby” on the above map. Beginning in 1880, the Groveton Mission held Sunday school bible studies in the schoolhouse. The Woodlawn Farmers Club is known to have met there at least once in 1885. Currently, the only known teacher of the school is H. V. Collingsworth, who taught there during the 1886-87 school year. On March 14, 1888, the Alexandria Gazette newspaper reported:

"Kirby's school house, in Fairfax County, about four miles below this city, was totally destroyed by fire during the high wind yesterday [Tuesday], with all its contents. The flames caught from the stove, a fire in which had been kindled and left burning by some of the children, who had returned to their homes after waiting for some time for the teacher, who was prevented by the weather from being present. It is said that the building was in ashes within fifteen minutes from the time the fire caught."

A new one-room schoolhouse was erected a short time later on the site of the burned building. By the early-1890s, the name Kirby had fallen into disuse and the school permanently became known as the Groveton School.