The Waterman school in Harrisonburg was opened in 1911 in the northwest section of Harrisonburg on land donated to the Harrisonburg District school trustees by Augustus Waterman. Prior to the construction of Waterman, the only white school in Harrisonburg was the high and grade building on South Main Street. By 1910, the population of Harrisonburg had grown to a point where a new school was required. Native blue limestone, of the same type used a few years earlier for the new building at the Main Street school, was used at Waterman. The contractor was Samuel Heatwole of Ottobine. Joseph Dorsey laid the stone for the building. The cost of the building was $25,000, a very expensive building for its time. The first principal at the new school when it opened for the 1911-12 school session was Miss Bessie Peck, who served at Waterman until 1919. In 1916, Waterman became a part of the newly created Harrisonburg City Public school system.
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