• 1945 - Land was purchased by the School Board for $2,000, after having declined to accept, in 1935, the offer by owners Joseph and Lena Cook to donate the land to the Board for an Black American High School.

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• 1948 - During the era of segregation, George Washington Carver School was built and opened in western Loudoun County for Black American children.  It was built on 5 acres adjacent to the historic "Emancipation Grounds" in Purcellville, VA, a gathering place for Black American citizens for many years (now site of Blue Ridge Bible Church).

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• 1968 - Following integration, it was thought that the segregated Carver School would cease operations as its students were distributed to other schools in the area. However, Emerick Elementary in Purcellville then overflowed, causing the integrated 4th and 5th grades to come back and utilize Carver during 1969 and 1970.

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• 1970 - Carver School closed its doors to education and became a School Board warehouse for storage of old school equipment and supplies-it was badly damaged during these years.

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• 2000 - The Older Americans Humanities Corporation (OAHC) along with Mattie Lassiter, Mac Brownell, Martha Barnheart proposed restoring the school to active use as a senior center. The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors approved funding for a study. Based on the recommendations whichresulted from this study, the Board approved the use of Carver as a combination Senior Center/Community Center. The Board later decided to include an Adult Day Center.

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• 2001 - Members of the OAHC formed a new group called "Friends of Carver" which held its first community fundraiser in September, a picnic on the school grounds, attended by 250 supporters including former students and teachers.

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• 2002 - The property was officially transferred from the School Board to Parks, Recreation and Community Services.

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• 2007 - After restorative construction, Carver's grand opening was scheduled for March 17th, St. Patrick's Day. When a snowstorm struck that day opening was postponed until April 28th, however over 200 people showed up anyway! Thus every year on St. Patrick's Day we celebrate the anniversary of our Center; originally a segregated school, now open to all, joining us together to achieve new heights of excellence and community.

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early history of the George Washington carver elementary school

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Luther George Stewart, Jr.

May 1853 - March 1936

By Sheila Pinkney Kelly

​

Born in May 1853,1 Luther Stewart, Jr. loved people, especially children. He did more than preach

about the purpose of the Loudoun County Emancipation Association (LCEA), "to cultivate good fellowship

and to work for the betterment of the Negro race, educationally, morally, and materially." He became the

paradigm of altruism in his community by convincing others of the need for change and by training them to

cultivate their skills. He was Vice President of the Loudoun County Emancipation Association (LCEA)

when it was incorporated on December 10, 1909. This date roughly coincides with the association's move

from Hamilton, where the LCEA was organized by African Americans in 1890, to nearby Purcellville in

1910. Luther was one of twelve directors and among five who lived in Purcellville (Jacob Dade, Dennis

Pierce, Henry Jackson, and John Lewis, all close nearby neighbors). Because of the LCEA' s ceremonies,

Purcellville became the hub of social and political activity for blacks. Crowds of up to 1,000 people traveled

from nearby counties and distant cities not only to celebrate freedom from slavery every September 22, but

to learn to improve themselves from participant, eloquent speakers.2

​

According to the Stewart Family history collected by Rachael Rector Jasper, Luther, Jr. was the

eldest of eleven children. His father Luther George Stewart, an Irishman of the Scottish Clan, came from

Flushing, New York, and lived north of Lovettsville in a village called Scottish Comer, Virginia. His mother

Sally Kennedy Stewart, a Cherokee Native American Indian, lived in Waterford, Virginia, where her tribe

had built attached houses for their protection. With only one brother Fenton, Luther's nine sisters, Ellen

Stewart Grimes, Jettnie Stewart King, Fannie Stewart Allen, Martha Ann Stewart Carey, Lucy Stewart

Trammel, Sallie Stewart [Lee], Serepta Stewart, Cornelia Stewart, and Bessie Stewart Mann, far outnumbered

and dominated the family tree.3

​

The Stewart Family history reveals that Luther, Jr. married "Lizzie Legg.',4 However, her name is

also shown as Elizabeth Perry under the 1900 U.S. Census.5 From their union seven children were born:

Lena Stewart Cook(e), Blanch Stewart Brown, Lula Stewart Cook(e), Granville Stewart, Rosier Stewart,

Allison Stewart, and Arthur Stewart. Luther inspired all of their sons to become skilled brick layers and

stone masons like himself and his brother Fenton, except Rosier, a butcher by profession.6

​

Luther Stewart, Jr. also proved to be a strong influence on two of his sons-in-law, Joseph and James

"Bud" Cook, both listed as farm hands in the 1880 U.S. Census. After Joseph married Luther's eldest

daughter Cena and Bud' s marriage to daughter Lula, both brothers became professional stone masons and

carpenters. Because of the Cook brother's admiration for Luther, they and other fami ly affiliates worked

diligently to assist him in LCEA endeavors. When the LCEA directors purchased ten acres of land in

Purcellville for $ 1,250 on January 1910, Sallie Hatcher gave the LCEA an old log cabin. Lewis Rector

(married to Luther's niece Minnie) and Lyndon, McWashington (married to the Cook brothers' niece Sarah)

dismantled it and brought it to Purcellville's Emancipation grounds. There, Joseph rebuilt the log cabin,

which became the LCEA's headquarters. In fact, Joseph and Bud Cook, their best friend John Furr, Lewis

Rector, Linden McWashington, and others helped to construct the LCEA's tabernacle, which had been

designed by Round Hill's master builder, Arch Simpson. The tabernacle's door's opened for the 1914

meeting with seating room at 1,200.7 Joseph and Lena, like Luther, also became LCEA directors in later

years.8

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On February 3, 1914, Luther, his brother-in-law, also Purcellville's first black barber George W.

Lee, and his son-in-law, master carpenter Joseph N. Cook(e) became the first trustees of the Willing Workers

Club representing parties desiring to provide school facilities for black children in the Purcellville vicinity.9

Built by Joseph Cook, the doors of the two-room school house opened on September 1919. It was called the

Willing Workers Hall until deeded to the Loudoun County school board in 1937. Christian services were

held there intermittently until 1943. It also served as a meeting hall for club members. For 3~ years, 1919

tol947 (called the Purcellville School from 1937-1947);10 it provided grades one through six, an exceptional

education and brighter future for hundreds of African American students.

​

A glimpse through history's pages shows that Luther Stewart, Jr. was a collaborator for good will

and a tireless activist who improved the skills of others seeking his help. Eugene Scheel writes in his Story

of Purcellville that bands played and horsemen jousted on the Emancipation grounds every September 22,

that the LCEA tabernacle was filled to capacity before the late 1930s, and that speakers included such

luminaries as educator Nannie Helen Burroughs, president of Florida's Bethune-Cookman College Mary

McLeod Bethune, and president of Howard University Mordecai Wyatt Johnson. Perhaps it is merely

coincidental, but according to Scheel, "interest in the Loudoun County Emancipation Association did not .

wane until 1936,"11 the very year of Luther's death, March 5, 1936.12

​

 

NOTES:

1 Loudoun County Census, (1900).

2 Eugene M. Scheel, The Story of Purcellville. Loudoun County Virginia, (Warrenton: Parker & Roe@

Warrenton Printing and Publishing), ( 1977), 17.

3 Rachael R. Jasper. "They Were Not Slaves," History of the Purcellville Stewart Family-February 1997.

4 lbid.

5 Loudoun County Census, ( 1900).

6 Rachael R. Jasper. "They Were Not Slaves," History of the Purcellville Stewart Family-February 1997.

7 Rachael R. Jasper, "They Were Not Slaves," History of the Purcellville Stewart Family-February 1997 and Eugene M. Scheel,

The Story of Purcellville. Loudoun County Virginia (Warrenton : Parker & Roe@ Warrenton Printing and Publishing); (1977), 18.

8 Elaine Thompson, Personal Interview by Sheila Pinkney Kelly, Hamilton, Va, (2002).

9 Loudoun County Deed Book 9C, 311; Loudoun County Courthouse, Leesburg, Va.

10 Eugene M. Scheel; The Story of Purcellville. Loudoun County Virginia, (Warrenton: Parker & Roe @ Warrenton Printing and Publishing), (1977), 18. II Ibid.

12 Master Newspaper Index, Thomas Balch Library.