Mount Pleasant School (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact spot where this school once stood. No visible remains exist.


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

In the 1860s, a group of freed slaves settled near the intersection of Columbia Pike and Lincolnia Road and established Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. The original church building also housed a public school until 1877, when a schoolhouse was constructed nearby. Known first as the Mason Hill School, and after 1885 as the Mount Pleasant School, the schoolhouse once stood on Lincolnia Road across from the future site of Parklawn Elementary School. The building pictured here, in 1942, is the second Mount Pleasant schoolhouse that was constructed on the same site in 1900. Mount Pleasant closed in 1945 and the building was demolished in the early 1960s.


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What’s in a Name?
The Parklawn Elementary School community is steeped in history. Learn about the origin of the name Parklawn, the Clark dairy farm, Chestnut Hill Plantation, and the founding of the Mount Pleasant African-American community in this video produced for Fairfax County Public Schools’ cable television channel Red Apple 21:

Before the establishment of the Clark's dairy farm, the land where Parklawn Elementary School stands was part of a plantation called Chestnut Hill. In the mid-19th century, Chestnut Hill was owned by Murray Mason, a United States naval officer. Mason was the commanding officer of the U.S.S. John Adams, a sloop-of-war. After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln in January 1863, a large community of freed slaves was established at the base of "Mason Hill," as Chestnut Hill had become known. In 1867, these Freedmen established Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. The church building also housed a public school until 1877, when a schoolhouse was constructed south of the church on Lincolnia Road. Known variously as the Mason Hill School and the Mount Pleasant School, the schoolhouse was located at the intersection of Lincolnia Road and Pine Lane, across the road from the future site of Parklawn Elementary School. A second schoolhouse, pictured here, was built on the same site in the early 1900s. Mount Pleasant School closed in 1946, and the building was demolished in the early 1960s.


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Here follows an excerpt from the "Northern Virginia History Notes" website blog:

Educating Freedmen During Reconstruction in Fairfax County
by Debbie Robison
December 6, 2014

Annandale (Mount Pleasant)

A school house measuring 16x24 was constructed at Mount Pleasant near Annandale by April 1867, though there wasn’t a teacher available. The frame building was constructed by Mack Phearson at the request of the Freedmen’s Bureau who furnished some lumber. About $28 was raised by the freedmen through church collection; however, it was agreed that the debt would be paid if the house was taken as a church. Samuel Strother agreed to work on erecting the building with the belief that since it would be a church, he would be paid.

On September 7, 1867, Charles H. Brown and Eliza C. Brown, his wife, donated the one acre lot with the existing buildings to four freedmen who acted as trustees: Andrew Jackson, Fenton Somers, William Nest, and John Curry. A stipulation in the deed required that the lot be used exclusively for religious and school purposes and a burying ground by those who reside on the land Charles Brown subdivided into lots and sold to freedmen.

It is unknown if this school ever officially operated during the Reconstruction Period since there weren’t any school reports provided to the Freedmen’s Bureau for Annandale/Mount Pleasant.