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Parklawn Elementary School

GPS Coordinates: 38.8341526, -77.1527108
Closest Address: 4116 Braddock Road, Alexandria, VA 22312

Parklawn Elementary School

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

In 1955, there were 32,000 children enrolled in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). By 1965 that number would climb to 94,450. The Lincolnia and Bailey’s Crossroads communities saw tremendous population growth in the 1950s, leading to overcrowding at the few schools in the area. In November 1956, housing developer Merwin A. Mace of Mace Properties, Inc. donated land in the Parklawn subdivision to the Fairfax County School Board for a school site. In October of the following year, the School Board awarded the contract for the construction of Parklawn Elementary School to the Rust Construction Company for $456,078.

The First Intermediate School
With construction of Parklawn Elementary School underway, the School Board turned its attention to other matters. In particular, the Board was in the midst of lengthy discussions with school system administrators about initiating a fundamental change in the way FCPS provided education to children. Traditionally, students in grades one through seven attended elementary schools, and students in grades eight through twelve attended high schools. A reorganization plan was under consideration that would create a new type of school–the intermediate school–for seventh and eighth graders. In the summer of 1958, the School Board designated Parklawn Elementary School as the pilot site to test this educational innovation.

When Parklawn School opened on September 8, 1958, the student body was comprised solely of seventh and eighth graders. As the school year progressed, the School Board, satisfied with the progress of the pilot intermediate program, moved ahead with the reorganization plan division-wide. It was determined that Parklawn would continue to operate as an intermediate school until a new building could be constructed nearby. In the spring of 1959, the School Board acquired land for the new school building and approved its name, Ellen Glasgow Intermediate School. The 1960-61 school year saw the county-wide introduction of the intermediate school reorganization and eight new intermediate schools opened. Construction of Glasgow Intermediate School was not completed in time for the opening of schools in September, so Parklawn remained in use as an intermediate school until Glasgow opened in the spring of 1961.

Integration
Parklawn began operation as an elementary school beginning with the 1961-62 school year. From 1870 to 1966, public schools in Fairfax County were segregated by race. Racial integration was a slow process, beginning in 1960 and culminating county-wide at the end of the 1965-66 school year. When our school first opened, only white children from the surrounding community were admitted to Parklawn. African-American children from our area were sent to Lillian Carey Elementary School near Bailey’s Crossroads. Beginning in 1960, if an African-American child in Fairfax County wanted to attend a white school closer to their home, their parents had to apply to Virginia’s Pupil Placement Board and the Fairfax County School Board for permission to enroll. Parklawn was one of the first schools in Fairfax County to admit African-American children.

Diversity
Fairfax County was far less racially and ethnically diverse in the 1960s than it is today. In November 1966, the Washington Post reported that the enrollment at Parklawn Elementary School was comprised of 84 African-American students and 641 white students. The diversity we embrace today developed slowly during the 1970s and 1980s. By comparison, in 2015 Parklawn students came from 37 countries and spoke 34 different languages.

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:

In September 1958, Fairfax County Public Schools opened a pilot intermediate school program in the newly completed Parklawn School. For almost three full years, the school building housed students in grades seven and eight, until construction of Glasgow Middle School was completed in the spring of 1961. Parklawn Elementary School was established in May 1961, when elementary-aged children, previously housed at Lincolnia Elementary School, moved into the vacated Parklawn building. Parklawn was named for the adjacent residential neighborhood, which had been built by Mace Properties in the mid-1950s. Named for its founder, Merwin Ardeen Mace, this company built more than 4,000 homes and 1,000 apartment units in the Washington, D.C. area from the mid-1930s through the early 1960s. When naming his developments, Merwin Mace tended to favor words such as hills, west, park, and lawn. In fact, Mace Properties built two neighborhoods named Parklawn—the second is located in Prince George's County, Maryland. Parklawn Elementary School was built on land that was once a dairy farm owned by William and Minnie Clark. In 1902, William Clark married Minnie Howdershell, and began construction of a home. This home, still known as the Clark House, is all that remains of their once thriving dairy farm. The Fairfax County Park Authority acquired the house in 1986, and moved it a short distance to Barcroft Mews Park. 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.

In the Spotlight
Visit by First Lady Barbara Bush, May 4, 1989

Did you know that Parklawn Elementary School has hosted not one, but two First Ladies of the United States? First Lady Barbara Bush visited Parklawn in May 1989, and in January 2012 First Lady Michelle Obama visited Parklawn to announce new guidelines for school lunches.

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Award-winning local historian and tour guide in Franconia and the greater Alexandria area of Virginia.

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ADDRESS

Nathaniel Lee

c/o Franconia Museum

6121 Franconia Road

Alexandria, VA 22310

franconiahistory@gmail.com

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