Built circa 1895 in a simplified style with Gothic Revival details, the Fairmount School is one of two such schools remaining in Richmond (the other is Randolph School, listed in 1984). The building includes two subsequent additions, one from 1908-09, designed by the noted Richmond architect Albert F. Huntt; the other, a 1915-16 design by prominent architect Charles M. Robinson. Located in a north Church Hill neighborhood, the school was originally in—and named for—Henrico County’s Fairmount District. In 1906 the city annexed the district. Following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, Richmond officials, adhering to a doctrine of “massive resistance,” deflected desegregation by significantly realigning the city’s schools. In 1958 officials closed nine schools that were likely candidates for integration, and arranged a system of tuition grants for white students to avoid integrated schools. Students also were shifted throughout the city system to preserve segregation. Illustrating this shift, Fairmount School—then called Helen Dickinson School—was converted to an African American school, a move that reflected hardening attitudes on the part of city officials, as well as a demographic shift in the population of north Church Hill from predominately white to black.
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Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia