Monsignor Walsh Hall
GPS Coordinates: 38.7655221, -77.0835934
Closest Address: 2907 Popkins Lane, Alexandria, VA 22306

Here follows a history of the building as excerpted from the Saint Louis Church website:
In the early 1920s, Father Louis Smet, Pastor of St. Mary’s, with the help of the Catholic laity in the Groveton area, began a Sunday School class for the neighborhood children. Father Smet soon saw a need for a mission church in Groveton. Accordingly in 1925, the old Groveton schoolhouse and the adjoining land was purchased to become the Mission of the Sacred Heart. At the time of its purchase, the old schoolhouse was considerably smaller. It faced out on U.S. Highway 1, instead of on Popkins Lane as we see it today. Mr. L.A. Popkins, with the aid of a team of horses, moved the building to its present location. In the early 1940s the building was enlarged, tripling its capacity to 175, and the name of the church was changed to St. Louis, in honor of Father Louis Smet. By 1949 the Catholic population had become so great that Monsignor Edward L. Stephens, Pastor of St. Mary’s, purchased additional land and a house across from the church. It became the rectory for the first resident pastor, Father Albert P. Campbell.
During the pastorates of Father Campbell and his successor Father Michael F. Igoe, the population of the Groveton area grew spectacularly. When Father Eugene P. Walsh came to St. Louis in June of 1955, the parish had grown to 1,700 parishioners. Father Walsh purchased property upon which a school and convent were soon erected. They were dedicated in 1956 by the Bishop of Richmond, the Most Reverend Peter L. Ireton. Masses were held in the school and soon after in the auditorium of the old Groveton High School (presently Bryant Education Center). A deep concern for the spiritual welfare of the parishioners prompted a ground-breaking ceremony in March 1961 for a new Church structure. The solemn blessing and dedication took place on May 5, 1962.
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Here follows a history of the building as excerpted from the Saint Louis Catholic School website:
ST. LOUIS PARISH & SCHOOL ARE ESTABLISHED
St. Louis Parish started as a small mission church in the 1920s, when the pastor of St. Mary's Parish, Fr. Louis Smet, commissioned the purchase of farmland and an old schoolhouse overlooking U.S. Route 1 in Alexandria, Virginia. It was this schoolhouse that became the first roots of this new Catholic mission, and the place where Mass was celebrated once or twice a month for a dozen Catholics in the area. As the number of Catholics grew, the schoolhouse was enlarged into a proper chapel. In 1941, the refurbished schoolhouse, still in existence on the parish grounds (known as Walsh Hall), was dedicated as St. Louis Church, named in honor of its founder, Fr. Louis Smet.
By 1949, the Catholic population in the Groveton, Alexandria area had grown large enough for St. Louis Church to become a separate parish. By the 1950s, the parish had grown to a population of 1,700. In June 1955, Fr. Eugene Walsh was appointed pastor, and two months later he purchased the property that became the school grounds and convent. Without the constraints of current County zoning laws or special permit requirements, construction on a school building began immediately, and the first wing of St. Louis Catholic School opened in 1956. The multipurpose room of the school also operated as a chapel, where five Masses were celebrated each Sunday.
GROWTH & ACCREDITATION
By the mid 1960s, school enrollment grew to just over 1,000 students in grades one through eight. This large number of students required the use of the old chapel (Walsh Hall) as classroom space.
The school enrollment and physical space have changed through the years, but its pledge to "provide clear spiritual direction and opportunities for service to God and others" has remained the same. Its early roots from the small, converted schoolhouse continue to spread and grow, educating and evangelizing the southern end of Fairfax County.
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Here follows a history of the Groveton school as published on the Fairfax County Public Schools website:
Groveton Elementary School opened its doors on September 5, 1972. However, the roots of our school can be traced back to 1876. Learn more about us and the history of the Groveton community by visiting the links on this page.
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.
In 1925. the one-room schoolhouse closed and students moved into a new two-room schoolhouse located at what is now the intersection of Groveton Street and Route 1. In June of that year, the one-room Groveton school was sold to Reverend Dennis O'Connell and is now part of Saint Louis Catholic Church. Student population growth in the Groveton area accelerated rapidly during the late 1920's and the two-room schools soon became overcrowded. In 1933, a new Groveton Elementary School was built nearby on Memorial Street. This two-story brick building initially had six classrooms and an auditorium and remained in use until 1972 when the present Groveton Elementary School opened.
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. Annie Harvey is known to have taught at the Groveton School from 1893-95, and Lillian Utterback was the teacher during the 1895-96 school year. On December 14, 1894, the Alexandria Gazette reported: "Miss Annie Harvey, teacher of Groveton School, Fairfax County, while closing a blind yesterday, accidentally let the window fall on one of her hands and two of her fingers were broken."
School Days
Teachers at one-room schoolhouses had significant responsibilities in regards to the upkeep of the building. There were no janitors, so teachers built and maintained a fire in a pot belly stove used to warm the building, and washed and oiled the wood floors. The daily lessons were staggered by subject and grade level, with one grade of students giving recitations while the others worked quietly at their desks.
At some one-room schools, children didn’t have individual desks. They sat on long wooden benches and held their work in their lap. Before the days of ink pens and paper, children wrote with chalk on small slate boards that could be carried to and from school. There were no restrooms or running water in one-room schools. Older boys were tasked with carrying drinking water in a large bucket from a nearby well, and with carrying firewood into the building. Bathroom facilities typically consisted of a single outhouse, but in some more fortunate communities there were separate outhouses for boys and girls.
Groveton School class photo, circa 1916. Two of the children have been identified. Mary (Wease) Scheeler is in the plaid dress on the far right in the back row. The girl to the left of Mary in the back row is Evelyn Van Pelt. Courtesy of the Virginia Room, Fairfax County Public Library.
A Growing Community
In October 1915, Samuel and Mary Ayres sold half-an-acre of land to the School Trustees of Mount Vernon District for $75. The purchase expanded the size of the Groveton School lot to approximately 1.77 acres in size. The land was likely added to provide additional space for the children to play.
Robert Wheat, Carl Wease, and Leon Taylor in front of the Groveton School, circa 1916. Courtesy of the Virginia Room, Fairfax County Public Library.
By the early 1920s, the Groveton community had grown to such an extent that the little one-room school had become overcrowded. In 1922, the individual district school boards were abolished and the combined Fairfax County School Board, much as we know it today, was formed. In 1924, residents of the Groveton community pleaded with the School Board to build a new, two-room school at Groveton.
The original alignment of Route 1, looking north from Hybla Valley to Groveton, in 1918. The one-room Groveton School is pictured on the hillside on the right. Courtesy of the Virginia Room, Fairfax County Public Library.
On August 19, 1924, the School Board awarded the contract for the construction of the new schoolhouse to R. L. Smith Construction of Accotink at a cost of $4,714. The building was completed in the spring of 1925, after which the one-room school was offered for sale at public auction. On Saturday, May 2, 1925, it was sold to Reverend D. J. O’Connell, Roman Catholic Bishop of Richmond, for $2,150 cash. The building still stands today, on Popkins Lane, and is part of Saint Louis Catholic Church.
Schools of Yesteryear
Learn more about the schools of the old Mount Vernon District in this video produced by Fairfax County Public Schools’ cable television channel Red Apple 21:
Established in 1870, Fairfax County’s Mount Vernon Magisterial District originally included the communities of Franconia, Gum Springs, Springfield, and Woodlawn. Located in the historic village of Accotink, near the intersection of Backlick Road and Route 1, the two-room Accotink School was built around 1884. Prior to its construction, students attended school in a nearby church. Pictured here, in 1907, is one of the Accotink School’s classrooms. The school closed in 1923 and was sold two years later. The Cameron School was located near the intersection of Wilton Road and Telegraph Road. It was built around 1892 on property sold by Elizabeth and Anne Frobel of Wilton Hill. Cameron replaced an earlier schoolhouse once located farther north on Telegraph Road that had been known variously as the Cameron School, Pulman School, and Valley School. The Groveton School, located on Popkins Lane at Route 1, replaced an earlier building on the same site called the Kirby School, that had burned down in March 1888. After the Groveton School closed in 1925, the building was sold and used as a church. In 1925, a two-room building, also called the Groveton School, opened on the opposite side of Route 1. It operated until the opening of Groveton Elementary School on Memorial Street in December 1933. Both of these buildings were demolished in the 1990s. The Potter’s Hill community, once located near the intersection of Beulah Road and Telegraph Road, was home to two school buildings. The first was constructed around 1877 on land donated by Charles Potter. It was replaced in 1917 by the four-room schoolhouse pictured here. Former student Marjorie Tharpe fondly recalled Halloween celebrations at the school when the children bobbed for apples in a washtub. The new Potter’s Hill School was destroyed by fire in March 1934 and was not replaced. The Spring Bank School was located on Quander Road near its intersection with Route 1. The school was constructed around 1890 and educated children who lived in the historic Black community of Spring Bank.
Viola Taylor: There could be 45 to 50 children in that building at one time. Sometimes, some years, you know, there was three or four children in each row. Sometimes there were four or five, especially as they got older. I remember the rows for the 5th, 6th, and 7th grade it always seemed like it was more children over there.
Joseph Williams: I remember that it had one teacher who taught all the classes. And every once in a while, Fairfax used to send a bushel of apples down there or a bushel of oranges once in a while you know for us. It had an old pot belly stove in there. I understand that the students before me used to go out there and pick up wood and stuff to put in the heater to keep the building warm. It was just one big room you know.
Joann Jordan: But we had to walk maybe a little over a mile every day to school. If it was ice, snow, we still had to walk down to Spring Bank. You had to bring your lunch every day. If you didn’t bring your lunch, there was a store up at the top of the hill. We’d call it Epp’s Store. And we would go up there during lunchtime at 12:00. And most of us had a quarter. And we’d buy five cents worth of bologna, and five cents worth of cheese, and a box of crackers. If we had a soda bottle, we would be able to get a soda. And we’d come back to the school and we ate our lunch.
Host: Spring Bank was the last one-room schoolhouse operated by Fairfax County Public Schools. After it closed in 1948, the students were bused to the Gum Springs School on Fordson Road. At that time, Gum Springs was a four-room building. It had been constructed in 1939 using a Rosenwald building layout with funding from the Federal government’s Public Works Administration.
The Springfield School was a one-room schoolhouse located on Backlick Road. Alice Smith and her sister Virginia Smith taught there in the 1920s. Former pupil Lillian Javins wrote that the school had a well with a hand pump, a library, and a playground where children played baseball, marbles, and Farmer in the Dell. Due to racial segregation in public education, there were two schools in the vicinity of Woodlawn mansion, both named Woodlawn - one for white students and the other for Black students. Pictured here is an artist’s depiction of the Woodlawn School for white children as it appeared prior to 1937. Located on the south side of Route 1, the two-room schoolhouse was replaced by the current Woodlawn Elementary School. The Woodlawn School for Black children was located on Woodlawn Road north of its intersection with Meeres Road on land that is presently part of Fort Belvoir. It replaced an earlier school that had been established in the mid-1860s with assistance from the Freedmen’s Bureau. Built around 1888, the second schoolhouse closed in 1941 during the expansion of Fort Belvoir and its students were reassigned to the school at Gum Springs.
The history of the Groveton two-room schoolhouse was written with assistance from Charlotte Brown, author of Images of America: Groveton, and Patricia Young from Friends of Historic Huntley.
School History: The Groveton School (1925-1933)
By the early 1920s, the Groveton community had grown to such an extent that the little one-room Groveton School had become overcrowded. In 1924, residents of the Groveton community pleaded with the Fairfax County School Board to build a new, two-room school at Groveton. A survey of potential sites was conducted in May of that year, and W. Franklin Pierce Reid offered to sell the School Board two acres of land for $500. This property was located north of Popkins Lane on the opposite side of Richmond Highway at its intersection with Groveton Street. The School Board took Reid up on his offer and, on August 19, 1924, awarded the contract for the construction of the new school to R. L. Smith Construction of Accotink at a cost of $4,714. The building was completed in the spring of 1925.
In the 1920s, Groveton was largely a rural dairy farming community. In October 1928, the School Board contacted David Crockett, and requested that he “keep his livestock and fowls off of the Groveton School property.” Prior to the completion of Shirley Highway (Interstate 95 in Fairfax County) in 1952, Route 1 was the primary north to south route for automobile travel through the county. Heavy traffic on Route 1 became dangerous for children walking to and from the Groveton School, and in 1931 the School Board asked the State Highway Department to lower the speed limit near the school to 25 miles per hour.