Ravensworth Elementary School

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

Ravensworth Elementary School opened on September 3, 1963. However, our school was actually established during the 1962-63 school year. As we commemorate our more than 50 years of educating children in the Ravensworth Farms and Burke communities, we invite you to explore some facets of our unique and fascinating history.

What’s in a Name?
Have you ever wondered how Ravensworth Elementary School got its name? Find out in this video produced for Fairfax County Public Schools’ cable television channel Red Apple 21:

Ravensworth Elementary School opened in 1963. The name Ravensworth is entwined with the story of the Fitzhugh family. In the 1670s, William Fitzhugh emigrated to Virginia from England. Fitzhugh practiced law, served in the House of Burgesses, and was a lieutenant colonel in the militia. He acquired a large tract of land and what would later become Fairfax County. After he arrived in Virginia, William Fitzhugh incorrectly adopted the coat of arms of another Fitzhugh family, the Barons Fitzhugh of Ravensworth. These Fitzhugh's were an ancient noble family line in England, but died out in the 1500s. Since Fitzhugh's family already had their own coat of arms that had been in use since the late 1400s, some historians speculate Fitzhugh reinvented himself knowingly in an attempt to elevate his stature in the colonies. The borrowed coat of arms and the manufactured connection to the Barons Fitzhugh passed to William Fitzhugh's descendants as fact.
His heirs eventually renamed Fitzhugh's land in Fairfax County Ravensworth after the other Fitzhugh's Ravensworth estate in England. In 1796, Williams great-grandson, who was also named William Fitzhugh, built a mansion which he called Ravensworth on land that he had inherited in what is now the North Springfield area. This William Fitzhugh was a wealthy planter, a delegate to the Continental Congress from Virginia, and a friend of George Washington. He also built Chatham manor near Fredericksburg and owned a town house in Alexandria that has become known as the boyhood home of Robert E. Lee. The Ravensworth mansion and estate passed down through the Fitzhugh family who maintained ownership into the 20th century. The mansion was destroyed by fire in 1926 and the estate's farmland was sold to developers in the 1950s. Ravensworth and the Fitzhugh's storied legacy live on today in the aptly named Ravensworth Elementary School.

School History: 1962-1992

Ravensworth Elementary School opened on September 3, 1963. However, oral histories and an old report card indicate that our school was actually established during the 1962-63 school year. During that time, while Ravensworth Elementary School was under construction, children from the Ravensworth Farms community were bused east of Annandale to the old Lincolnia Elementary School. Even though the students and teachers were housed in the Lincolnia building, they were officially organized as Ravensworth Elementary School.

Lincolnia Elementary School, 1954. The school was located near the intersection of Lincolnia Road and North Chambliss Street close to the Alexandria City line. The building currently houses a senior center.

In 2005, Mary Lipsey, a historian and retired Fairfax County Public Schools teacher, interviewed Ruth Miller for Braddock Heritage. Miller, who taught a combined class of second and third graders at Ravensworth from 1962-1964, shared some memories from the first year at Lincolnia.

"That was an older school, and had large classrooms. My room was on the corner of the building, and I had a door out to the playground, which was marvelous, and lots of shelves. And being a science major, I encouraged children, or they just naturally had an interest, they’d bring in milkweed pods or bird nests, and I’d just put them on all the shelves. It was just marvelous."
~ Ruth Miller, Braddock Heritage Interview

Design and Construction
Ravensworth Elementary School was designed from 1961-62 by the architecture firm of Victor B. Spector & Associates, and was constructed from 1962-63 by general contractor M. L. Whitlow, Inc., at a cost of $469,000. The building originally had just 16 classrooms and a multi-purpose room which functioned during mealtime as the cafeteria. The library was originally located on the second floor above the main office.

Duck and Cover
Ravensworth Elementary School was constructed during the period known as the Cold War—a time when the threat of nuclear war between United States and the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.) seemed imminent. Once a week, public schools in Fairfax County conducted air raid drills, and students practiced what to do in case of an attack by the U.S.S.R. The State Board of Education strongly urged local school divisions to construct shelters in new school buildings, so during the planning process for our school the Fairfax County School Board directed the architect to plan an alternate design to include a basement level with a fallout shelter. The plans were shelved in January 1962, when, by a vote of three to two, the School Board decided against building a shelter at Ravensworth.

The First Additions
Ravensworth Elementary School opened during the post-World War II period known as the baby boom. In September 1960, there were 59,870 students enrolled in FCPS. By September 1970, enrollment had swelled to 133,362 students.

The baby boom placed an incredible strain upon classroom space, necessitating the construction of new schools and additions to schools at the pace of approximately one classroom per day.

The first addition to Ravensworth Elementary School was constructed in 1963. Four classrooms, two on each floor, were built on the northeast end of the building. A single-story addition of six classrooms, connected to the four story addition, was constructed in 1966 at a cost of $88,000, increasing the pupil capacity of the building to 780 students.

Fun Fact
Did you know that when Ravensworth Elementary School first opened there were no kindergarteners in our school? During the 1967-68 school year, a kindergarten program was piloted in several schools and proved so successful that one year later FCPS added kindergarten county-wide. Ravensworth opened its doors to the five-year-olds of our community in September 1968. FCPS enrolled approximately 8,000 children in kindergarten that year.

A Necessary Adjustment
From 1970 to 1977, enrollment at Ravensworth fell from 719 to 374 students. As enrollment declined, FCPS administrators reallocated four of Ravensworth’s vacant classrooms for other purposes. A letter written by the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) President of Ravensworth in 1974 indicates that one classroom was being used to house FCPS Human Relations staff, another was being used by county and state auditors, and two rooms were being used as storage space for materials from Woodburn Elementary School.

Originally the Ravensworth attendance area only encompassed the surrounding Ravensworth Farms neighborhood, but in 1977 our boundary was expanded to include the newly established and planned neighborhoods of Fox Lair and Signal Hill in Burke. After the boundary adjustment, enrollment gradually increased, and our population maintained a steady average of approximately 520 students throughout much of the 1980s.

The Little Red Schoolhouse
From 1963 to 1988, Ravensworth Elementary School did not have a gymnasium. Students of the 1970s attended physical education classes in “The Little Red Schoolhouse,” a portable classroom trailer that was located where the School Age Child Care (SACC) classrooms are today. As early as 1971, Ravensworth’s PTA lobbied the School Board to construct a gymnasium and classrooms for art, music, and science. Funding finally became available for a gymnasium and music room addition in 1986. Construction began during the summer of 1987 and was completed the following spring.

In 1988, voters approved the sale of bonds that funded the first building-wide renewal of Ravensworth Elementary School. A $2.1 million contract for the renovation was awarded by the School Board to the Hess Construction Company in December 1989. During the renewal, air conditioning was added throughout the building for the first time, and a new media center was constructed.

Our Principals (1962-1992)
The first principal of Ravensworth Elementary School was Alice Tolliver. In 1964, she was succeeded by Ronald N. Carpenter. Principal Carpenter left Ravensworth in 1971 to open Forest Edge Elementary School in Reston. He was followed by Merlin Gil Meadows, who came to Ravensworth from Quander Road Elementary School in Alexandria.

Ravensworth Principals Ronald N. Carpenter (left, 1964-71) and Merlin Gil Meadows (1971-76).

Rita C. Apter became the fourth principal of Ravensworth Elementary School in 1976. Apter was formerly the principal of Vienna Elementary School. She left Ravensworth in 1979 to open Rocky Run Intermediate School near Chantilly. Our fifth principal was Janet S. Keith. Principals Apter and Keith are pictured below in these class photographs from 1979 and 1981.

In January 1984, Janet Keith was succeeded as principal by Nancy C. Burnett, who led Ravensworth through May 1987.

Our seventh principal was Marilyn J. Helvie. She was appointed principal of Ravensworth in July 1987 and led our school until 1995. During her principalship, Ravensworth became one four schools chosen to pilot a new Spanish Partial-Immersion Foreign Language program.

The quilt in the lobby display case was created to commemorate our school’s 25th anniversary.

School History: 1992-Present

Ravensworth Elementary School began its fourth decade with a newly renovated building. Our school was also in the midst of the pilot testing phase for a new Spanish Partial-Immersion Foreign Language program. The program proved so popular that, by 2003, Ravensworth was one of fourteen Fairfax County public schools offering Spanish-Immersion.

Technology
Throughout the 1990s, computer technology changed at a rapid pace, and the internet came into broader use by educators. In 1997, Ravensworth was one of the first FCPS elementary schools to receive technology cabling upgrades to provide internet access to classrooms.

In 2003, thanks to a generous donation from Ravensworth’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA), our computer lab was outfitted with a new, state-of-the-art wireless mobile laptop station.

Outdoor Learning
In the fall of 2004, Ravensworth debuted a new outdoor classroom. The gazebo was funded by an anonymous donation to Ravensworth’s PTA.

"The idea behind the gazebo, according to PTA member Elisa Meridian is to "get (students) outside and get some fresh air." The gazebo will be used for outdoor lessons, especially in science and art classes, and will eventually become a part of an "outdoor discovery schoolyard," which Meridian hopes will be used in many subject areas and will also include a small garden where students will plant bulbs and establish a butterfly conservancy."
~ The Connection Newspaper, Sept. 8, 2004

Ravens Town
By 2013, Ravensworth Elementary School had become significantly overcrowded and modular classrooms were brought in to handle the overflow. The cluster of modular classrooms became known as Ravens Town. In the spring of 2014, the Fairfax County School Board awarded a $13.3 million contract for an addition and renovation project at our school to the V. F. Pavone Construction Company.

The project, completed in 2016, added 12,000 square feet of space, including new classrooms and a new library.

Explore these aerial views of Ravensworth Elementary School from 1976 to 2017. Also included is a photograph taken in 1960, showing what our school site looked like before Ravensworth Farms was constructed. The pictures are courtesy of the Fairfax County Park Authority.

Our Principals (1992-Present)
In 1995, James Ray Ross became the eighth principal of Ravensworth Elementary School. After he retired, Pam McClelland served briefly as an interim principal until Pam O’Connor’s appointment as principal in 2005.

Principals James Ray Ross and Pam O’Connor, 2004-05. Before being appointed principal, Ms. O’Connor served as an assistant principal at Ravensworth.

In 2013, Roxanne Salata succeeded Pam O’Connor as principal of Ravensworth. She led our school until the summer of 2019 when she became the principal of Clermont Elementary School. Our current principal is Erika Aspuria.

Our current mascot logo debuted in 2009.

The Ravensworth Estate

History of Ravensworth
By Ray D’Amato

Ravensworth Estate was the largest and most historical land grant in Fairfax County. The mansion, which had been built in the late 1700s, was destroyed by fire on August 1, 1926. The Ravensworth mansion was the oldest of the three famous Fitzhugh homes of the Annandale area, similar in line to the others: Ossian Hall across Braddock Road, and Oak Hill on Wakefield Chapel Road.

Ravensworth was an extremely handsome home with wide, pillared two-story verandas extending the length of the house, and its landscaping was done with great care. The furnishings were priceless heirlooms of the Lees, Custises, Parkes, Fitzhughs, and Bollings. The walls were hung with probably the finest private collection of early American portraits in existence. Fortunately, many of the portraits had been removed before the fire, and a number were saved during the conflagration, but 17 paintings were burned.

Explore some photographs of the Ravensworth House and Stable, once located at 5200 Port Royal Road, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The Fitzhugh Family
In the late 1600s the plantation which was the background for these homes was granted to William Fitzhugh, originally from Bedford, England. He had settled in Westmoreland County and in 1685 purchased from John Matthews nearly 22,000 acres in what was to become Fairfax County.

William “the Immigrant” Fitzhugh (1651-1701)

William Fitzhugh never lived on his Ravensworth plantation, but secured a party of French Huguenots as tenants and set them to raising tobacco. It was not until the fourth generation that some of the Fitzhugh family lived on Ravensworth land. William Fitzhugh, the namesake great-grandson of the emigrant, was the first of the family to reside at Ravensworth.

William Fitzhugh (1741-1809) served as a delegate to the Continental Congress for Virginia in 1779.

According to George Washington’s diary, Mr. Fitzhugh had been spending some time at Ravensworth as early as 1786, so it is assumed that the house was built between these two dates. William Fitzhugh’s daughter, Mary Lee, at the age of 16, married George Washington Parke Custis (Martha Washington’s grandson) and became the mistress of “Arlington House.” William Fitzhugh had also purchased a townhouse in Alexandria at 607 Oronoco Street in 1799, which is family in 1818 loaned to their cousin, the widow of “Light Horse Harry” Lee, and her eleven-year-old son, Robert Edward Lee. William Fitzhugh died in 1809 and was buried at Ravensworth beside his wife, who had died four years before. His son, William Henry Fitzhugh, became a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention, and it was said that he was headed toward the governorship before he met an early death. He had no children, and his estate went to his wife, Maria, in trust for his sister’s daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, who married her childhood playmate, Robert E. Lee, in 1831.

Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) and his wife Mary Anna Randolph Custis (1808-1873)

The War Between the States
As the Fitzhugh’s Alexandria home had been a haven for young Robert E. Lee and his widowed mother, Ravensworth would thrice more shelter his loved ones in time of distress. Two years before his marriage, Robert E. Lee had been summoned from West Point to his mother’s deathbed at Ravensworth, where she had been brought by the Fitzhughs when she became ill at her Georgetown home. Upon her death she was buried temporarily at Ravensworth. Ravensworth was eventually apportioned among the Lee children and became the refuge of Mrs. Robert E. Lee and her children at the outbreak of the Civil War. However, Mary Lee soon realized that her presence might endanger her beloved hostess and bring retribution upon the home by the Northern forces, so she departed for her Randolph cousin’s home further south.

Years later, after the war and the loss of her beloved husband, Mary Lee came again to visit “Aunt Maria” at Ravensworth. They made a last pilgrimage to “Arlington House” …the empty rooms… her mother’s tangled and neglected garden! Her death came within the year (1873), Maria Fitzhugh’s the following year. Thereafter, Ravensworth estate was apportioned among the Lee children. The house with 563 acres was allotted to Representative W. H. F. Lee, who died in 1891. He willed his estate to his widow in trust for their two sons, Robert E. Lee III and Dr. George Bolling Lee. Dr. Lee acquired sole ownership following the death of his brother in 1922; he died in 1948. His widow sold the estate in 1957 for development, and remains in the family cemetery were removed to Fairfax Cemetery across from Truro Episcopal Church. Today the land known as the Bristow Tract holds many major subdivisions including Springfield, North Springfield, Bristow, Ravensworth Farm, and West Springfield.