Virginia_Episcopal_School

Virginia Episcopal School

Virginia Episcopal School

School in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States

Virginia Episcopal School (VES) is a private, co-educational college preparatory, boarding and day school for students in grades 9 - 12, located in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. The school was first conceived in 1906 by the Reverend Robert Carter Jett, and opened its doors to students in September 1916. Virginia Episcopal School's 160-acre (0.65 km2) campus is located above the James River in Lynchburg along the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Quick Facts Address, Coordinates ...

History

Virginia Episcopal School's early benefactor, Viscountess Astor, the first female member of British Parliament, donated much of the school's initial endowment while visiting her family home, Mirador, in Albemarle County. Lady Astor maintained a keen interest in the school for the rest of her life and was instrumental in having her father Chiswell Langhorne donate the school chapel in memory of his wife Nancy Witcher Keene (parents of Lady Astor).[3]

Virginia Episcopal School opened its doors to students in September 1916. Jett Hall was completed the same year under the direction of Frederick H. Brooke, a prominent Washington architect. Pendleton Hall was completed in 1918, enabling enrollment to be increased from sixty-three to one-hundred eleven boys. In 1919, Langhorne Memorial Chapel was consecrated. This was followed by the opening of Barksdale Gymnasium in 1920. As bishop of the newly-created Diocese of Southwest Virginia, Bishop Jett would serve ex officio as chairman of the school's board of trustees until his retirement in 1938.

Originally all-white, the school was racially integrated in 1967, when the first two black students entered the school in a successful initiative organized by the Stouffer Foundation, which also arranged the integration of other elite prep schools in the South, including Saint Andrew's School in Florida, the Asheville School in North Carolina, and the Westminster School in Georgia.[4]

Notable alumni

References

  1. [1]
    "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. [2]
    "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  3. [3]
    Calder Loth (March 1992). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Virginia Episcopal School" (PDF). Virginia Department of Historic Resources. and Accompanying photo
  4. [4]
    Mosi Secret, 'The Way to Survive It Was to Make A's', New York Times Magazine (September 7, 2017).
  5. [5]
    Todd S. Purdum, A Southern Point Man: Erskine Boyce Bowles, New York Times (November 9, 1996).
  6. [6]
    Steve Cowper, 100 Years of Alaska's Legislature, From Territorial Days to Today, Alaska Legislature.
  7. [7]
    William Bland Whitley, Hardy Cross Dillard, Dictionary of Virginia Biography.
  8. [8]
    Resume: William B. Harrison Jr: Bloomberg BusinessWeek (April 21, 2002).
  9. [9]
    Melissa Hendricks, A Doctor Who Makes Barn Calls, Johns Hopkins Magazine (November 1994).
  10. [10]
    Sarah Kaufman, A singular vision: Nearing 80, Paul Taylor is as moving a dance figure as ever, Washington Post (July 18, 2010).
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Virginia Episcopal School.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Virginia_Episcopal_School, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.