Maggie L. Walker Governor's School

Maggie L. Walker High School (c. 1980-99)

Maggie L. Walker Governor's School (2017)

Site Name: Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School (formerly Maggie L. Walker High School)

Date of Construction: 1938

Reason for Construction: Built to provide an additional education center for African Americans in the city of Richmond.

Site History: Maggie L. Walker High School was the first vocational high school built for African Americans in the city of Richmond. Originally the site of the Hartshorn Memorial College, an institute of higher learning for African American women, the site has served as an epicenter for education on the north side of Broad Street. In 1931, the Hartshorn Memorial College merged with the neighboring Virginia Union University, leaving the campus vacant. Not long afterwords the city prompted the creation of another high school to work alongside Armstrong High School in the schooling of Richmond’s African American population. Later in 1937, the Hartshorn campus was purchased by the school board and construction on the new building began the same year. The Richmond firm of Carneal, Johnston, and Wright was commissioned to design the new Art Deco style building, for which much of the funding came from the Federal Administration of Public Works. The city completed construction of the school in 1938, wherein it was opened and offered vocational training for African American youth. Despite the fact that Maggie Walker was a segregated school built in the Jim Crow era, it was a well designed facility. Maggie L. Walker High School was exclusively an African American school well into and after the Civil Rights era. Following desegregation, the school remained predominantly African American due to its location in an African American neighborhood. This continued until 1979, wherein it stopped operating as a comprehensive high school completely. It wasn’t until 2002, after a major renovation, that the school reopened as the home of the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School for Government and International Studies.

Area History: Maggie Walker Governor’s School is situated on the border of the Carver Neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia. The Carver Neighborhood was settled as a working-class neighborhood in the 1840s and '50s, and is sometimes referred to as Sheep Hill. Due to its location to the northwest of Richmond’s central business district, the residents of Carver were reputed to be among the city's hardest-working skilled laborers. Originally the neighborhood was settled by Jewish and German tradesmen, but by the turn of the turn of the 20th Century it had become a thriving African American community. The creation of the Richmond Turnpike (later Broad Street) in 1804 is what prompted suburban development in the region. Prior to that, the Buchanan family owned much of the land in the district. It wasn’t until 1810, that Parson John Buchanan began to subdivide and sell off the 500-acre estate surrounding his home, Geilston, near the 1000 block of present-day West Broad Street. Later on, between the 1890s and the 1930s, there was a period of rapid economic growth that led to increased development in the district. Since then, the Carver Neighborhood has been home to a wide range of businesses. In 2000 the National Park Service listed the Carver Historic Districts in the National Register of Historic Places.

What about the site has changed? Since the Maggie Walker building was finished in 1938, there has been a few add-ons and renovations over the years. In 1963, the building was expanded to include symmetrical wings at the north and south ends of the building and one story additions on either side of the auditorium. However, after the school ceased operation in 1979, the building fell into ruin. It wasn’t until after major renovations that the school reopened in 2002 as the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School. Since then there has been the addition of a student and faculty parking lot. The athletics field has also been updated since the school’s renovation.

What about the surrounding area has changed? Much of Richmond has grown over the years since the school’s founding.

Reflection: As a student who attends Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School, I learned quite a bit about the school’s campus history. I also learned how much of an impact it had on the community and how much of a milestone it was in Richmond’s local history.

Author: Lyndsey Clark

Sources:

Department of Historic Resources. "National Register Nomination: Maggie

Walker High School, Richmond." Virginia Department of Historic

Resources. Accessed February 15, 2017. http://www.dhr.virginia

.gov/registers/Cities/Richmond/MaggieWalkerhigh_photo.htm.

U.S. Department of the Interior. "Carver Residential and Industrial Historic

Districts." National Park Service. Accessed March 18, 2017. https://

www.nps.gov//nr/travel/richmond/carverhds.html.

U.S. Department of the Interior. "Maggie L. Walker High School." National

Park Service. Accessed February 15, 2017. https://www.nps.gov/nr/

travel/richmond/maggiewalkerhighschool.html.

U.S. Department of the Interior. "National Register of Historic Places

Registration Form." U.S. Department of the Interior. Last modified

June 17, 1998. Accessed March 19, 2017. http://www.dhr.virginia.

gov/registers/Cities/Richmond/127-0414_Maggie_Walker_School

_1998_Final_Nomination.pdf.