Robert E. Lee High School (Site)

Lee High School has been renamed and expanded over the years, but the original school building and classrooms still remain. Here follows an excerpt from the Fall 2020 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

FRANCONIA HIGH SCHOOL
By Carl Sell

The Franconia Museum presents this story in order to preserve the local historic record of the school now named for John. R. Lewis. The name change took place at the start of the fall session in 2020.

The Fairfax County School Board voted on September 19, 1957, to approve a low bid of $1,591,400 to construct the new Franconia High School. That’s when the fight began! People on the west side of the new Henry G. Shirley Highway that reached from Old Colchester Road to the Potomac River, wanted the name changed to Springfield High School. The Franconians wanted it to stay as it was. Heated words were exchanged.

Mary Smith from Franconia, who was scheduled to enter the eighth grade at the new school, remembers how happy she and her neighbors were when they learned the school was to be named Franconia High School. After all, they had attended Franconia Elementary for seven years. Years later, Mary still has vivid memories of the sign at the site announcing the new Springfield-Franconia High School.

Jane Devine, who lived in Springfield, remembers the outcry from her friends who wanted to change the name to Springfield High School. She was a sophomore at the then new Annandale High School. Andy Higham, a freshman at Mount Vernon High School, would transfer as a sophomore to the new school. Andy probably didn’t care what the name was, just so he could play football.

A compromise was floated to name the new high school Franconia-Springfield High School. There was disagreement as to which name should go first, and more heated words were exchanged.

Meanwhile, construction and the argument continued. School Board minutes refer to the school as being named Franconia in several instances. A proposal to name it after Fitzhugh Lee, who was born at Clermont near what is now Clermont Drive at the Beltway (I-95), got nowhere. It was noted that an elementary school nearby was already named for his birthplace. Lee, a former governor of Virginia, had served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and in the United States Army both before and after the war.

The issue was discussed at a May 6, 1957, meeting of the Fairfax County School Board. W.T. Woodson, the Superintendent of Schools, was quoted as saying he was “surprised and disappointed that we have this type of controversy among adults. I don’t want the children coming to this school saying I’m from Springfield… I’m from Franconia… let’s fight! Gangs tend to develop in communities where there is controversy.”

On May 6, 1957, a motion was made and seconded to officially name the school Franconia High School. It failed by a vote of 4-3, and the administrative staff was asked to come back with a suggestion. On May 20, 1957, the staff proposed that the school be named Franconia-Springfield High School. That idea failed on a 3-2 vote by the School Board. Superintendent Woodson then proposed that they go back to his original suggestion of Lee High School. The Board approved the name change by a 4-1 vote.

Mary Smith, Jane Devine and Andy Higham started school there in September 1958. All would graduate with yearbooks and senior class pictures labeled Lee High School. On July 16, 1963, the Fairfax County School Board voted to change the name to Robert E. Lee High School, acting on a request from the school’s SPTA.

Judy (Tharpe) Hutchinson, who may hold the record for attending the most schools despite never moving from her home on Beulah Road, spent the ninth grade at Lee High School in 1961-62 before transferring to the even newer Edison High where she graduated in 1965. She had attended elementary school at Garfield, Franconia and Bush Hill, as well as Washington Irving Intermediate. School districts changed quite rapidly for Judy and her friends down near Potter’s Hill.

Jane Devine would marry Andy Higham in 1960, and after Andy finished college at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, the couple settled in Franconia on Higham Drive. Andy passed away in 2012. Mary, Jane, Andy and Judy all became involved with the Franconia Museum. Jane is currently the Museum treasurer, Judy the secretary and Mary a Board member. All were resources for this story.

On June 20, 2020, the School Board voted unanimously to rename the school John R. Lewis High School, in memory of a recently deceased long-time member of Congress from Georgia and civil rights leader who gained notoriety for his leadership at Selma, Alabama, in 1965. The change was prompted by the desire of many to strip the names of those who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War from schools, parks and other public places.