By Charles Crenshaw
The Crenshaw family, the Dickerson family and the Seamonds family have a lot of history at Broadus Wood High School. Until 1906, there were three one-room schools near the village of Earlysville. They were Sandy Bottom, Longwood and Happy Hollow. My grandfather, Charles Crenshaw, attended Sandy Bottom.
If there was farm work to be done, it came first, not school. It was the same with most children in those days. There was a stable to tie up the horses for those that rode to school. Others walked, some for miles, to attend school.
The parents of the children attending the three schools met to decide the location for a consolidated school, which would offer grade school and two years of high school. Mr. Broadus Wood, who was big on education, offered a plot of land on his farm for the school and it was accepted. Mr. Wood is related through my mother, Wilda Dickerson family.
In 1906, Earlysville High School opened its doors replacing the one-room schools. It was a one-story frame building with three classrooms, two for grade school taught by two teachers and one for high school taught by principal Edward Birckhead of Earlysville. There was no running water. Drinking water was carried in buckets from the well on the Broadus Wood adjourning property. Toilets were outside. Stables were built with ten stalls for those that rode. Fifty two students were present the first day.
In 1910 a second story was added to make room for an assembly room and another grade school classroom. The Earlysville and Community Civic League was organized in 1912 and purchased a piano, song books, chairs for the assembly room, put in a well and made improvements to the grounds. In 1914, another high school classroom was added along with a laboratory. A second high school teacher was employed. Some students walked or rode as much as seven miles to school.
In 1916, the newly accredited Earlysville High School had its first graduation class of two. As of 1920, the high school had expanded and twenty units of work were offered. Some great help arrived from Paul Goodloe McIntire in the form of a Victrola, maps, dictionaries, subscriptions to magazines and chemical supplies for the laboratory. Mr. McIntire also paid half of the cost to paint the building. This is the same Paul Goodloe McIntire who helped fund McIntire High School, the McIntire Library, McIntire Park, Washington Park, the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia and donated the Robert E. Lee, the Stonewall Jackson and the Lewis and Clarke statues as a gift to the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County. He also made donations of equipment and supplies to other Albemarle County Schools.
In the late 1920’s, another addition was added to the back of the building including primary classrooms with indoor restrooms beneath. The school burned in 1934. In the meantime, temporary buildings were constructed.
The current building was erected in 1935. The new school was renamed Broadus Wood High School for Broadus Wood in honor of the man who originally gave the land and served on the Albemarle County School Board for many years.
The last graduating class of Broadus Wood High School was 1953, then Albemarle High School opened in the fall of 1953. At that time, Broadus Wood became an elementary school for grades one through seven. Now, since the middle school system has been installed, it is pre-school through fifth grade.
My mother and dad went to Broadus Wood as did aunts, uncles and cousins. Our two children and several grandchildren attended Broadus Wood School.
I attended the first through the third grade there from 1946 until 1949. There are many memories in that building and some of them are mine.
