Back to School Through the Years

The girls' basketball team at Norfolk Mission College c1910. Founded by the United Presbyteries of Ohio, the Norfolk Mission College was the alma mater of many Norfolk residents from 1883 until it closed in 1916. From 1917 until 1924, it housed Booker T. Washington High School. It was torn down in 1955. [From the Mann Collection -- Library of Virginia]

Larchmont Elementary School opened in the Tanners Creek District of Norfolk County in October 1913 in this 4-room school house at the northwest corner of what is now Hampton Blvd. and Bolling Ave. Classes met there until the present building opened in September 1930. [From the Mann Collection -- Library of Virginia]

The first public high school classes for Black students were added to the ninth ward Barboursville (later John T. West) School in 1911. In December 1916, the School Board purchased the Norfolk Mission College building and moved the high school classes there, renaming it Booker T. Washington High School. In 1923, the Blyden Branch of the Norfolk Public Library opened in a room at the school. It was the first library for Black citizens to be supported by a municipality in the state of Virginia. [From the Mann Collection -- Library of Virginia]

The "barefoot boys" of Norfolk Academy mug for the camera in front of their Bank Street school c1910. The Greek Revival style building housed the student body from 1840 until 1915. It is now the Norfolk headquarters of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce. [From the Mann Collection -- Library of Virginia]

The first school safety patrol in Norfolk is said to have been at James Monroe School in 1920, possibly the oldest such patrol in the United States. In 1934, the Tidewater A.A.A. sponsored school safety patrols in the Norfolk elementary and junior high schools, to provide safe street crossing and encourage leadership and responsibility. In 1949, Police Department Patrol Guards were assigned to Norfolk schools. Student safety patrols in 1934.

Typing, stenography and bookkeeping classes were introduced to Norfolk High School in 1895. When Maury High School opened in 1911, 19 Underwood typewriters were purchased for the students' instruction.

The first school lunchrooms were organized in Norfolk before World War I by members of the Norfolk School League (later the P.T.A.), who brought hot food from their homes for the children's lunches. Later, the School Board took over, purchasing food and other supplies, and employing a dietician. Here, Maury students forsake the "balanced" meal plan in favor of a hamburger and fries at Pop Hart's, 1964.

Instruction in vocal music was added to the Norfolk school curriculum in 1891. In 1916, the School Board approved after-school violin classes, the students providing their own instruments and paying for their own music and supplies. In 1929, the School Board purchased its first musical instruments and permitted Music Supervisor Harold O'Dell to teach classes during the school day. [From the Mann Collection -- Library of Virginia]

Norfolk's first high school opened in 1894 in the former Hemenway School building on Lovitt Ave., the same year that electric street cars were introduced in Norfolk. The building burned in September 1908. Classes met temporarily in the John Marshall School until a new high school building was completed in 1911. The new school was named to honor Matthew Fountaine Maury.

Caps and gowns were first used by graduates in Norfolk in 1914. Rental was $1.25. Shown here, the Booker T. Washington class of 1927.

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