Description

The Old Wallville School on the campus of Calvert Elementary School was moved to that location in 2004. Its original location was on the corner of J Lloyd Bowen and Mackall Roads in St. Leonard.

This one-room schoolhouse was built in 1871-72 as a replacement for the elementary school for White children in Wallville and continued to serve in that capacity until 1887 when African American students were transferred there from an earlier Wallville School further south on Mackall Road. It served as the school for African Americans in the community until 1932 when it was replaced by another building which had served as a school for White children in St. Leonard and was moved to J Lloyd Bowen Road when the schools were consolidated. The Old Wallville School was then moved across the road where it stood on the property of Frank and Edith Gray until it was moved to its current location.

In the current location the school is visited by every 8th grade class in Calvert County to learn about education before desegregation, and about the experiences of the people who taught and learned in segregated one-room schools. Volunteer docents lead them through the curriculum developed with Calvert County Public Schools.

The new location allows the interpretation of the landscape in a new way: it now stands between what was to be the “new” African American High School before desegregation (it became Calvert Elementary) and what was Central Elementary, the African American elementary school (now the Calvert Country Day School). It is across Dares Beach Road from the “old” African American High School (Brooks High School), which is now the Board of Education. East of the Board of Education is the Sewell Funeral Home, the premier provider of mortuary services to the African American communities of Calvert County, and the Sewell farm. The Old Wallville School sits within a historic African American landscape and un-mutes the stories that have not been publicly interpreted and unmasks the historic landscape.

The Old Wallville School represents the oldest standing one-room school for African American children that survives in Calvert County.

Wayside interpretive signs are on the property next to the school in addition to the historic marker on Dares Beach Road.

Additional Resources

Friends of the Old Wallville School:  https://www.oldwallvilleschool.org/

Article about the school: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43598417

Newspaper article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/old-wallville-school-a-place-that-matters/2011/06/14/AG6MwIXH_story.html