Old Franconia School (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact spot where the school once stood. No visible remains exist. The Franconia School land was donated by Thomas Javins. The school opened circa 1863 and closed in 1932. In the beginning, only two teachers taught all seven grades. The building was converted into a private residence until it was demolished during the 1980's to build the office park here. The Honorable Gladys Keating tried to save the old building.


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

The following is an excerpt from The Springfield & Franconia Times, January 31, 1973, by Barbara Lovelace:

"To some Franconia residents this brief history is a familiar part of their lives. Those who are new to the Springfield-Franconia area might like to go back to the year 1872. During the year of 1872, Franconia saw its first public school built. The school was the second house before the railroad bridge. The house still stands on the original spot and looks exactly as it did at the time with the exception of the picture window in the front. Originally the school was gray and is now painted green. Boys at that time used to play ball on the west side of the house in the potato patch...

You cannot mention the history of Franconia Elementary School without including the name of Higham. Mrs. Kathie Higham, who has lived in Franconia since 1916, owned the property on which the school stands. In 1916, Mr. and Mrs. Higham bought a farm with about 50 acres and moved into the white farmhouse. The Higham's called their farm "Twin Oaks" and their home was located four doors up from the school on Franconia Road. In 1931, while Mr. Woodson was superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools, Mrs. Higham sold about two acres of her farm to Fairfax County and the school started as a four-room schoolhouse with an auditorium. Fairfax County later purchased two more acres for the playground. When school was dedicated on January 29, 1932, the students numbered 114. Building additions have been made to the school in 1938, 1948, 1953, and 1956. The end of 1972 saw the completion of a new wing housing office, library, and classrooms."

What's in a Name?
Should our name be spelled Franconia or Frankhonia? Learn about the origin of our school's name in this video:

Franconia Elementary School opened in January 1932. The name Franconia is derived from the name of an historic farm. In 1859 William Fowle, a merchant in Alexandria, purchased 191 acres from Joseph Broders.
Fowle named his property Franconia farm. In the early 1870s William's son, Robert Rollins Fowle sold part of the farm to the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway Company for a station. The station was named Franconia after the farm. Eventually the thriving farming community around the station became known as Franconia. The first school serving this community was a one-room schoolhouse built prior to the founding of Fairfax County Public Schools on land owned by Thompson Javins. After the creation of the public school system, Javins sold the property to the school trustees of Mount Vernon district for use as a public school in 1878. Granderson and Mathilda Javins gave additional land for use by the school trustees. Very few records remain to describe the next 30 years of the school's history. In this photograph from 1929, the Franconia School had two rooms. It is unclear whether this building is an expansion of the earlier one-room school or a separate schoolhouse. By the late 1920s, the Franconia School was too small to support the number of students from the rapidly growing community. A new four room brick building was constructed in 1931 and dedicated the following January. This school building has seen many renovations and additions over the years and continues to carry on the rich tradition of education in the Franconia community.

The First School
The first Franconia School, described above by Barbara Lovelace, was located on present day Old Franconia Road. The building was torn down several decades ago. Its location is shown on the following map of Fairfax County drawn in 1878. Pictured on the right is the Franconia School, circa 1930, when the building was still in use as a schoolhouse.

Franconia Elementary School opened at its current location on February 1, 1932. Our school initially had four classrooms and an auditorium. The building, with the exception of the plumbing and heating plant, was constructed by the Industrial Engineering and Construction Company of Washington, D.C., for $14,382.

Our school opened in the midst of the Great Depression. On September 5, 1933, the Fairfax County School Board applied for financial aid from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (PWA) for a grant of $10,000 to construct the first addition to our school.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Spring 2006 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

Miss Georgia Talbert Recalls Her School Days In Fairfax County
Written By Ruth Smith - - (An interview September 1972)

Miss Georgia Talbert, a lovely and very alert old lady, was 7 years old when she started to school in 1885. She recalls all of her teachers and spieled off their names like the multiplication tables. At that time Franconia was a one room school.

Miss Georgia, as everyone calls her, says her first grade teacher was Mr. John Callahan from Alexandria. He did not live in the neighborhood but came out on the train every day. Her second teacher was Miss Lillie Hullins, who later married a Mr. George Jones from Alexandria; then Mrs. Barbara Fowel, Miss Cranford who came up from Lorton on the train and Miss Fannie Wheeden who was still there when she finished the seventh grade.

She said Miss Weeden started the first library Franconia School had. The same book case and many of the books were still there until the school was closed in the early thirties when the new school was built.

While Miss Georgie was there the attendance grew so fast they had to enlarge the room. She was still there when the second room was added. Both rooms were heated by oblong stoves, not the pot belly types that were used in some schools at that time.

The children’s desks were the old double seat types that were screwed to the floor. The top of the desks were smoothed off but the seats were not too well finished and had splinters which some times tore the children’s clothes.

She said there was no well on the school grounds so they had to go down to the railroad station for drinking water. The bucket with a dipper sat on a shelf in the back of the room. There was a nearer well, but Miss Georgie said the woman at that house was so mean, she wouldn’t let them use her water.

Mr. M. S. Hall was the superintendent of the county schools at that time and usually made a visit once or twice a year. She said she would never forget those visits as he always had to teach an arithmetic lesson.

She was so cute as she said, “Those sums! Those sums! I just hated those sums! Mr. Hall was hipped on Arithmetic. I doubt if there is anyone who went to school during his long term that doesn’t remember his arithmetic classes.”

She also said she remembered many amusing things that happened during her school years at Franconia. One of the funniest was some of the boys tying a turkey buzzard across the entrance to the room, so when the teacher opened the door and walked into the room, she was greeted by the flapping bird.

Miss Talbert will celebrate her ninety second birthday this fall. She is still very active and enjoys doing house work. She is also involved in her church work and seldom misses a service. She is now living near Springfield with a nephew and his family across the street from the Springfield Forest Elementary School.

The author, Miss Ruth Smith, was one of seven children born to George & Maggie Smith who lived at Ashland in Franconia. She taught at Franconia Elementary School one year (1943-44) and finished her teaching career at Belle View Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia. This copy of the hand written interview was donated to the museum by her niece, Mary Evelyn Smith of Franconia.

Miss Georgia Talbert (1878 – 1982), the matriarch of her extended family, lived to the age of 104. Her last four years were spent in a nursing home and it was not until then that she was issued a social security card which was a requirement. She had been a hard worker in the fields, earning a living with the sale of her garden vegetables and flowers. She was tall and stately. She was known to most always wear a long black dress and high top button shoes and her long hair worn in a bun atop her head. She was a highly respected Christian lady.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Spring 2006 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

An Interview With Sarah Cox …
The following excerpt is from a thesis submitted to the Faculty of the School of Education of the George Washington University by Virginia Dowden Andrus, in 1944. The excerpt is an interview with Sarah Cox, teacher, and later principal of the Old Franconia School from 1896 to the early 1920’s. The thesis author, Virginia Andrus, was a teacher and principal at the new Franconia School during the 1940’s and 1950’s. The excerpt describes what school life was like for Franconia teachers and students in the early twentieth century.

Personal Reminiscences of Retired School Teachers of this Period
The following reminiscences were written by several retired teachers who taught in Fairfax County previous to 1900. These personal reminiscences of teachers help one to better understand the conditions under which these early schools had to struggle.

Miss Sarah Cox, who began her teaching career at Franconia, Fairfax County in 1896, says:

I was born and have always lived at Woodlawn in Fairfax County.

I attended the public school near home and then went to a private school at Lincoln, Virginia for two years. From there I went to George School, a boarding school, for three years where I took a course giving special training for those who expected to teach. I graduated there in 1896. I took an examination under Supt. M. D. Hall in the summer of that year and received a certificate to teach.

I began teaching in September at Franconia with Miss Fannie Weadon who had been principal there for several years. I was there two years. There were two rooms in the school and I taught the first four grades. I received $25.00 per month the first year and taught five months. The second year I had my salary raised to $28.00

Our drinking water was brought by the larger boys from a neighbor’s home in an open bucket and placed on a bench near the door. We all drank from the same cup, if we drank at all, and I think there must have been no germs then for I don’t remember any deaths. Sanitation was not a great problem – the toilets being quite a distance from the school building.

The room was heated by a big wood stove in the back of the room and the boys enjoyed getting the wood and kindling, provided they could do it during school. I made my own fire in the morning and swept my own room.

I was very fortunate in beginning my teaching with so good a disciplinarian as Miss Fannie Weadon, for she was a great help to me. After I left Franconia and was teaching at Woodlawn, a one-roomed school, she found I was discouraged about my work and she had a substitute for a day at her own expense and spent the day with me, showing me where I could help my plans and discipline.

After I had been away from Franconia several years I went back there as principal and was there until 1921. I think I had the cooperation of the patrons and the community as nearly as any teacher could have it.

I taught some children of the pupils who went to school when I was there the first two years. By that time I was receiving $50.00 per month.

After teaching one year in New Jersey I went to Lincoln, Virginia where I taught twelve years and retired in 1933.

In order to raise the grade of my certificate from time to time I attended summer schools at various places over the state, took a correspondence course, a course in special reading under Mr. Hall, and had summer work at the University of Virginia, Harrisonburg, George Washington University, and meetings of the National Education Association, held at Washington and Los Angeles,

Since I retired as a regular teacher I have done substitute work and have helped the boys and girls with 4H Club work, and still like to work with the boys and girls.

The highest salary I ever received was $105.00 per month, at Lincoln, Virginia.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Spring 2018 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

I attended Franconia Elementary Schools, the old and the new. At the old school, one memory stands out strongly. On my very first day of class, an angry dog got me, biting and ripping my pants. I also remember that a student, Dick Higham, constantly picked on me, like locking me in the outside toilet. I was forced to take action — a good sock stopped the teasing. Miss Annie Troth was the Principal and Miss Evelyn Broders was my teacher in grades 1–3. Miss Evelyn called me “bright eyes” because of my blue eyes. At the new school, Miss Dorothy Anderson was my 4th grade teacher. On one occasion, Miss Nellie Lee Nevitt, teacher and Principal, hit me over the head with a book because I was laughing hard and refused to tell her why. It was my brother, George, and Buster Talbert who were the pranksters at the old school. Once, they climbed up on the roof and covered the chimney with boards with obvious results.


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Here follows an excerpt from Donald Hakeson's "This Forgotten Land" tour guide:

The site of the Old Franconia Elementary School is across the street from Potters Lane on Old Franconia Road. According to Mr. Robert Potter, whose family lived in the area before the Civil War, the school was built in 1863. The Old Franconia School was the location where Ranger Joe Nelson attacked a Union outpost on August 8, 1864.

MOSBY'S RANGERS ON FRANCONIA ROAD.

Early in the morning on August 8, 1864, Lieutenant Colonel John S. Mosby came into Fairfax County with fifty rangers looking for a fight. A little after five o'clock in the morning, Mosby sent Walter Whaley and a few other rangers on a scouting mission looking for potential targets.

While Whaley was out scouting he was able to surround a picket about three miles southeast of Annandale on the Old Braddock Road. A corporal and three men from the Sixteenth New York Cavalry comprised the outpost. The rangers captured all the men and horses, except the corporal. He had gone to a nearby spring to et some water and escaped when the Southerners attacked. Whaley reported back to Mosby that there were two other picket posts on the Braddock road. Mosby wanted those picket posts because he wanted those horses.

After receiving this intelligence from Whaley, Mosby sent Lieutenant Joe Nelson, and fifteen or twenty rangers, to capture those two Union picket posts. One of the posts, suspecting an attack, moved off, but the second party posted near the Triplett house (behind where Edison High School is today), had taken refuge in a school house, situated on the Old Fairfax Road, today's Old Franconia Road. Nelson after arriving near the school house unseen, concealed their horses in the pines, and charged the building on foot, causing the Union pickets to flee.

The Union troopers fled out the back of the school house, mounted their steeds and fled down the Old Fairfax Road. Lieutenant Nelson and his rangers raced back to the pines, mounted their horses and pursued the fleeing troopers. Nelson actually chased the fleeing Union cavalrymen to within three miles of Alexandria (which would have put them somewhere near where Mark Twain Middle School is located today). Nelson's raid was successful because the rangers were able to capture at least three of the Union cavalrymen and their horses.

Although successful, Joe Nelson now had a problem. They were deep in enemy territory, close to the city of Alexandria where large numbers of Union troops could be sent to search for them. But, Nelson already had a plan. Assigned to his little unit was ranged Ab Minor, who had lived in the surrounding area before the war, and knew the land like the back of his hand. Unfortunately, it was late in the day and Minor became confused in the deep forests and completely lost his way. The farther the little band moved, the more disoriented Ab Minor became concerning his whereabouts.

At certain intervals, in the midst of ranger Minor's confusion, he would draw up his horse and could be repeatedly heard saying, "If I could only find 'Bone Mill,' it will be all right." Over and over the men could hear him make this statement. Bone Mill was a mill located on Accotink Creek between where Keene Mill Road and the Franconia/Springfield Parkway is today in Springfield. Everyone in the command was now looking and hoping desperately to find the now famous "Bone Mill."

Unfortunately, for ranger Minor, "Bone Mill" was nowhere to be found. The patrol spent the night in the pines, somewhere in the Kingstowne and Springfield area and finally linked up with Mosby and his men the very next day.

Normally that would be the end of the story, but it wasn't. Now everyone is Mosby's command was calling Ab Minor "Bone Mill Minor" and Ab Minor didn't like it. Finally a young ranger with a sharp tongue named Bill Trammell called him "Bone Mill" and Ab Minor, a man in his forties who had also served in the Mexican War, became enraged by the young man's lack of respect, pulled out his revolver and shot him. Fortunately for Trammell, it didn't kill him, but no other ranger ever called him "Bone Mill" ever again!

"BONE MILL" AND LUCELIA MINOR.
Albert George Minor was the son of Daniel and Mary (Moss) Minor and was born on July 31, 1823, in Alexandria, Virginia. He became a Fairfax County resident and a veteran of the Mexican War. He also rode with Mosby's Rangers in a raid in the Franconia area during the War Between The States. Lucy Shackleford Minor was born sometime around 1848, married a Union sutler in 1864 and lived with Albert Minor for thirty years after the war before agreeing to marry him after having nine children with him. Ab and Lucy, as they were commonly called, were a very interesting and controversial twosome. Here is their story:

On November 20, 1846, at age twenty-four, Ab Minor joined Company B, First Virginia Regiment and served honorably in the Mexican War. In 1850 he listed his occupation as "gentleman." A year after Virginia seceded from the Union, Minor enlisted as a private into Company F, Sixth Virginia Cavalry on May 24, 1862. He served with that unit until he was discharged on July 26, 1862. He then became a clerk for Major John Ambler, in the Quartermaster Department until he decided that this work was too mundane for an adventurer like himself. Samuel T. Bayley, in Richmond, convinced Private Minor to enlist into Company A, Forty-third Battalion Virginia Cavalry (or also known as Mosby's Rangers). He served as a ranger from July 1863 until he signed his parole on May 15, 1865 at Fairfax Court House, a little over a month from the date General Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia. Private Minor is profoundly remembered for losing his way while guiding Lieutenant Joseph Nelson and twenty Mosby Rangers through the thick forest somewhere between today's Kingstowne, Franconia and Springfield while searching for the infamous Bone Mill.

Minor also had the dubious distinction for shooting a fellow ranger, Private William Trammell. Trammell had maliciously called him "Bone Mill" Minor, after his futile episode in Franconia looking for that landmark. Upon hearing the slanderous slur, Minor then pulled his revolver and shot him. Luckily for Trammell, the bullet didn't kill him, but nobody else ever called Ab Minor "Bone Mill" ever again.

At his parole, at Fairfax Court House, Private Minor was described as five feet, eight inches tall, light complexion, brown hair, and hazel eyes. Ab Minor had now survived two major conflicts in American history.

After the war, Albert returned to farming and lived on the south side of Little River Turnpike near Braddock Road. In the 1880 census Albert was listed as single. However according to the book, "Annandale, Virginia, A Brief History," written by Robert Morgan Moxham, Albert Minor had a common-law wife, Lucy Carlin. The book further stated that Lucy Carlin was listed in the 1880 census as divorced and had five children that ranged in age from two to fifteen. Researching the Fairfax County marriage records I found that Albert G. Minor and Lucelia Carlin, a widow, were officially married on June 11, 1895, and made their home in the Lincolnia area. Lucelia and Private Minor had lived together for over thirty years and had nine children before they wed.

In the book, "Off to the War, The Virginia Volunteers in the War With Mexico" by William Page Johnson, II, I found the following statement from Lucelia: "We lived together and I was his common law wife for about thirty years. I had nine children by him. The reason we were not married sooner was because he would be liable to lose his property if he married against the wishes of his father's family and also he did not want to marry me until he was satisfied that my first husband was dead. Albert and I had been engaged before the war broke out and he went into the Confederate Army. While he was away I married George W. Carlin, a sutler in the Union Army. I was about seventeen years old then and had never been previously married... I had been acquainted with Carlin, my first husband, about five months before our marriage. We were married February 29, 1864 in Alexandria, Virginia at a private house. He came from Carrollton, Greene County, Illinois where he said he was born and raised... Carlin was about forty-five years of age when I married him... Carlin left me in August of 1865, saying he was going to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, with the Reno expedition. I received one letter from him, posted at Annapolis, Maryland, about three or four weeks after his departure. About a month or so after I received a second letter posted at Indianapolis, Indiana... I have written to William Carlin (a brother) and to the editor of the paper there. I wrote for the purpose of ascertaining whether they knew what had become of my husband. I never received an answer and none of my letters was returned to me... When Carlin left here he wanted me to go with him, but my mother would not let me go as I was then within six weeks of giving birth to a child, they only one I ever had by Carlin. Her name is Emma. She is now the wife (of) Fred Leary who lives on Diamond Farm forty-five miles from Dove, New Hampshire... He told me that if I didn't go West with him he would never come back."

William Page Johnson further stated in his book, "During the last year of the Civil War George W. Carlin was employed as a 'Wood Watcher,'" in the Fourth Regiment Quartermaster Volunteers. He and Lucelia were living in a tent at Edsall's Hill, Fairfax County on the Orange and Alexandria Rail Road. According to one family source in Carrollton, Illinois, George Carlin died in 1867 or 1868 in Carrollton, Illinois after eating a radish.

Apparently, according to descendants of the Minor family, Lucelia married a third husband named Dameron in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1913 and moved to Florida and died there. No other records could be found about her.

Researching the Alexandria, Virginia burial records I found that Albert Minor died on January 9, 1896, and was buried in the Christ Church Cemetery, located on Wilkes Street, in Alexandria, Virginia. Unfortunately, after countless trips to the cemetery, there was not a readable stone with his name on it. His tombstone has been worn smooth over time and couldn't be read by anyone. An unfitting ending to a fascinating figure in Fairfax County history. Alas, the family realizing that his tombstone was unreadable had another really impressive tombstone made so anyone searching for the elusive ranger could find his final resting place with ease.

The Minor family installed a new tombstone for Private Albert G. “Bone Mill” Minor in the Christ Church Cemetery, located on Wilkes Street, in Alexandria, in October 2011. Private Minor had served with the Forty-third Battalion Virginia Cavalry or Mosby’s Rangers. The family installed the new marker after it was mentioned in a Franconia Museum newsletter article that, “His tombstone has been worn smooth over time and cannot be read by anyone. An unfitting ending to a fascinating figure in Fairfax County history.” Private Minor gained his nick name after a raid at the Franconia Elementary School on August 8, 1864. I truly trust everyone will like the image of the Bone Mill Minor tombstone. Not only is his name now readable for all to see, it also verifies that he served with the gallant Confederate guerilla chieftain Colonel John S. Mosby.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Spring 2019 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

Memories of Living in Franconia by Lena Mapes

Lena Mapes and her parents and siblings lived in Franconia for many years. They lived in what was the original Franconia School, after it had been remodeled into a home. Lena shared one of her favorite childhood memories with a member of the Franconia Museum Board of Directors, and has given her permission for the Museum to share this delightful memory.

Lena Mapes: When we lived in Franconia, we would sometimes sneak over to 'Ward's Pond.' I went by myself one sunny afternoon and spread my towel out, and took off my new watch and headed to wade in the water. I looked around to make sure no-one was around, and lo and behold there was a man coming out of the woods! It scared me and I took off running.

Well, I forgot my watch, and after agonizing over my loss, I found my courage to go the house and confess my trespassing sin and ask if they had found it. They said no, they hadn't found it. I left my phone number, and about three days later I received a phone call asking me to come back to the house. I told my parents and they said I could go, and off I went.

When I got there, they told me that my watch had not been found, but they asked me if I would like a watch they had and were no longer using. I jumped at that and gave an ecstatic YES! They gave me the watch, and I gave them my word I would not trespass on their property again. The watch they gave me was a "Waltham."

I later found out from my brother, Bill, that the man who gave me the watch was Leo Gorcey, an actor from the "Dead End Kids." I couldn't believe it. This is a story I have cherished for years, but had no one to share it with.

MUSEUM NOTE: “Uncle” Bud Ward lived on Valley View Drive. He was a local radio personality for station WPIK in Alexandria back when radio was king of the airwaves. He was also the announcer for Franconia VFD events and parades. His daughter, Amelita Ward, a Mount Vernon HS graduate, became an actress and played supporting roles in over 20 films from 1943-49 (sometimes credited as Lita Ward.) In 1949, she married actor Leo Gorcey (Dead End Kids, East End Kids, Bowery Boys, over 90 movies). They had two children, and later divorced in 1956. Leo Gorcey died in 1969, and Amelita Ward McSloy died in 1987. She is buried in Ivy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria, VA.