Lillian Carey Elementary School (Site)

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

Lillian Carey Elementary School opened on September 4, 1956, and was closed in June 1965. The majority of Lillian Carey students were integrated into Bailey’s, Glen Forest, Lincolnia, and Parklawn elementary schools. The building was converted into a special education center, and is currently in use as the Bailey’s Community Center.

The racial desegregation of Fairfax County’s public schools was a six-year process, culminating in 1966 with the closure of the county’s last two all-Black elementary schools. The closure of the all-Black Lillian Carey Elementary School in 1965 led to overcrowding at nearby Parklawn Elementary School. In September 1965, Lillian Carey Elementary School was redesignated a special education center, and 75 students from Lincolnia Center were moved to that facility.

Land Records:
Fairfax County Deed Book 1247, Page 247: Nov. 22, 1954, 1.472 acres from Florence Green.
Fairfax County Deed Book 1247, Page 249: Nov. 22, 1954, 1.528 acres from Minnie Peyton.
Fairfax County Deed Book 1252, Page 239: Dec. 14, 1954, 4 acres from Russell J. Moore.
Fairfax County Deed Book 5861, Page 759: Sept. 29, 1983, Quitclaim deed to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

Construction Records:
Designed by architects Pickett & Siess
Built by Eugene Simpson & Brother Construction of Alexandria, Virginia
School Board Meeting Contract Award: April 14, 1955
Contract Amount: $168,515

Educators
The following persons once taught at Lillian Carey Elementary School:
Dolores Hall Dorsey
Ruby Greene Gordon
Remell T. Lomax
Mary Laura McPhail (Librarian)
Clara M. Mitchell (Principal)
Margaret Murrell
Barbara A. Ridley (Librarian)
Ruth S. Robinson
Marion Thompkins Ross
Mary Ballard Shipman
Winnie Walker Spencer
Marjorie Williams Weeks


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Here follows an excerpt from the Annandale Today newspaper:

A Bailey’s Xroads resident is documenting the history of a vibrant Black community
July 12, 2023

Julius Smith went to the segregated Lillian Carey Elementary School on Summers Lane, which is now the site of the Bailey’s Community Center.

That was the first community center in Fairfax County. It opened in 1972 after Bailey’s Crossroads youths began advocating for a community center in 1966, Smith says.

“This center changed a lot of people’s lives,” he says. Basketball, baseball, and mentors helped turn kids away from drugs and crime.

Lillian Carey was an itinerant teacher who served children in Arlington, Manassas, and Bailey’s Crossroads and later became the principal of the Bailey’s School, a two-room schoolhouse for Blacks.

Lillian Carey Elementary School served the Black community in Bailey’s Crossroads from 1956 to 1965. The building was later remodeled and repurposed as the Bailey’s Community Center.