Elkton (Elk Run)

 

 

The first school at Elkton was a one-room log building located on Spotswood Trail near the old Conrad's Store. This building was in operation shortly after the Civil War and was later incorporated into the Rockingham County Public School system. About 1875, a two-room frame building was built at the corner of Elk Run Cemetery near the tannery. By 1879 a two-room addition was made and this school became one of the early graded schools in the eastern portion of the county. In 1879-80, D. F. Huddle was listed as principal of Elk Run school. The school had two teachers with a total enrollment of 48 pupils and ran for a five-month school term. The Elk Run (Academy) graded school continued to operate until June 19,1905, when land was deeded from the Elkton Improvement Company and a four-room brick school was built on a hill above the town and near the Methodist Church. This was one of the first brick schools to be built in east Rockingham. In 1915 an additional wing was built on the south end of the school with a hallway connecting the two wings. By 1919, Elkton High School had become an accredited four-year high school. In 1934 a gymnasium-auditorium was built with WPA funds a short distance to the south of the 1915 addition. By this time the school was overcrowded and land was purchased for a new high school building. The lot for the new school was adjacent to the original buildings. This new high school was one of the first architecturally designed buildings in the county. The new High school was built at a cost of $65,000 and designed by Harrisonburg architect Raymond V. Long. Harrisonburg Building Supply, Inc. was the contractor for the new building. Similar designs were later used for the Linville-Edom school and the Lucy Simms school in Harrisonburg. The new school was ready for occupancy on September 20, 1938. The original buildings continued to house the elementary grades. Three years later, in 1941, an agriculture building was built east of the high school building. In 1954, a cafeteria was built behind the original buildings at a cost of $53,000. In 1946, as growth in the eastern Rockingham began to crowd the schools, proposals were made to build a consolidated high school at Montevideo that would include students from the Elkton area. Residents of the Elkton area protested the closing of Elkton High School and, instead, a new high school building was built east of Elkton at a cost of $662.000, plus land and equipment. The school opened in February of 1958, during Elkton's 50th birthday. The old high school and original elementary buildings became the new Elkton Elementary School. The high school and the elementary schools had been operating under separate admininistrations since 1953, when Robert Horst was named principal of the elementary school. W. J. King, who had been high school principal since 1953, became principal of the new high school. In 1965, a new wing was added to the high school to provide for an intermediate school program and the seventh grade was moved from the elementary school and the eighth grade was moved from the high school to form the new school. In 1972, the original buildings were razed and a new primary building of open space design was built and connected to the 1938 high school building. During the 1970s, a proposal for a consolidated eastside high school reappeared and, after much controversy, particularly in regard to the location of the new school, the new Spotswood High School opened its doors and Elkton High School became the intermediate (now middle) school. In 1995, the old depression-era gymnasium was torn down and a new addition, including a gymnasium was constructed.

 

Principals at the Elkton schools were:

 

1879-82 (three sessions) D. F. Huddle

1882-83 J. C. Walker

1883-85 (two sessions) J. H. Bader

1887-89 (two sessions) S. D. Turner, Jr.

1889-91 (two sessions) J. M. Coffman

1891-93 (two sessions) P. S. Good

1893-97 (four sessions) J. J. Lincoln

1897-98 W. S. Flory

1898-1901 (three sessions) C. P. Greyer

1902-03 W. P. Myer

1903-04 Josiah W. Gain

1904-05 J. H. Crews

1905-06 J. C. Crawford

1906-10 (four sessions) W. G. Irvin

1910-11 B. C. Williams

1911-12 H. M. Wharton, Jr.

1912-13 H. W. Rinker

1913-15 (two sessions) J. H. Kile

1915-17 (two sessions) M. B. Jarman

1917-18 W. M. Ketcham

1918-23 (five sessions) S. S. Shoemaker

1923-25 (two sessions) Berta Newton

1925-46 (twenty-one sessions) B. G. Heatwole

1946-49 (three sessions) L. W. Hillman

1949-53 (four sessions) W. C. Voorhees

1953-63 (ten sessions) W. J. King

1963-66 (three sessions) Gene L. Pfoutz

1966-70 Edward S. Long, Jr.

1970-74 Carroll K. Jones

1974-77 Ashby L. Shifflett, Jr.

1977-80 James Upperman

 

 

Elementary Principals

 

1953-56 (three sessions) Robert Horst

1956-57 Abigail Ritchie

1957-64 (seven sessions) E. Cameron Miller

1964-66 (two sessions) Carroll K. Jones

1966-78 (twelve sessions) John E. Zigler

1978-97 (nineteen sessions) C. Victor Diehl

1997- 2000 W. Marshall Price

2000- Ed Powell

 

Intermediate (Middle) School Principals

 

1980-87 Dale Dodrill

1987- Joe Dudash

 


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