Zenda's Schoolhouse:
With Zenda's demise, Longs Chapel
essentially was orphaned throughout most of the 20th century, vulnerable to
vandals, vegetation, and weather. It had nearly perished by the time Al and Robin Jenkins first encountered it in
2004 as out-of-state visitors after a volunteer at the
Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society's
Heritage Museum suggested
they visit it. “An overgrowth of vines seemed to be holding the building together,” writes
local historian Nancy Bondurant Jones of the Jenkinses’ first visit.
“Walls sagged, planks had been randomly pulled from the sides, the bell
tower held no bell, and graffiti scrawled broadside across the inside
walls confirmed other’s disregard or ignorance of the structure’s
historic value . . . [T]rash and listing tombstones further underscored
a common disinterest in the old religious and educational center that
had once served a community of newly freed blacks.”
Although the Zenda schoolhouse is gone, this undated photo of
the likely similarly-constructed Kipps Schoolhouse in Shenandoah County
offers a suggestion of its appearance. Its condition of neglect and disrepair
closely resemble Longs Chapel when the Jenkinses first visited the
chapel, according to Al Jenkins.