Sandburg Middle School

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

What's in a Name?
Learn about the origin of our school's name in this video produced for Fairfax County Public Schools’ cable television channel Red Apple 21.

In 1985, citing costs and declining enrollment, the Fairfax County School Board voted to close Fort Hunt High School. The building was renovated, renamed, and reopened as Carl Sandburg Middle School. Carl Sandburg was a famous American poet, the son of Swedish immigrants. He was born in 1878 in Illinois. Carl worked from the time he was a young boy. He quit school after finishing the eighth grade in 1891 and spent the next ten years delivering milk, harvesting ice, laying bricks, threshing wheat, shining shoes, and traveling as a hobo. When the Spanish-American war broke out, Sandburg was stationed in Fairfax County at Camp Alger near Falls Church. After the war, he entered college shaping his literary talents. Carl began his writing career as a journalist for the Chicago Daily News but his interest turned to poetry, history, and biographies. In 1916, his book "Chicago Poems" was published, beginning a career that would bring him international acclaim. Sandburg is also remembered for his children's works. "The Rutabaga Stories" published in 1922, was a series of whimsical stories he created for his daughters. They were borne out of his desire to create the first true American fairy tales. Sandburg earned Pulitzer Prizes for his collection, "The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg" and for his biography, "Abraham Lincoln: The War Years." In 1945, Sandburg moved to Flat Rock, North Carolina where he lived until his death in 1967. Several middle and high schools throughout the United States are named in remembrance of him.