Virginia Department of Historic Resources
(dhr.virginia.gov)
For Immediate Release
July 9, 2025

Contact:
Ivy Tan
Department of Historic Resources
Marketing & Communications Manager
ivy.tan@dhr.virginia.gov
804-482-6445

9 Historical Highway Markers Approved By State Board

—Markers cover topics in the counties of King and Queen, King William, Chesterfield, Accomack, and Highland, and in the cities of Richmond, Charlottesville, Staunton, and Roanoke—

—Text of each marker reproduced below—

PLEASE NOTE: DHR creates markers not to “honor” their subjects but rather to educate and inform the public about a person, place, or event of regional, state, or national importance. In this regard, erected markers are not memorials.

RICHMOND – The Department of Historic Resources (DHR) has announced nine new historical markers coming to roadsides in Virginia. The markers will feature various topics in the Commonwealth’s history, including one of Virginia’s oldest continuously published newspapers; one of the nation’s longest-operating African American women’s book clubs; and the consequences of a 1924 Virginia law that effectively excluded Indigenous people from official state records.

The Virginia Board of Historic Resources approved the markers on June 12, 2025, during its quarterly meeting in Farmville hosted by DHR.

The Recorder was established in October 1877 in the town of Monterey in Highland County by George M. Jordan and Philip E. Witts during a period of rapid growth for local journalism in the post-Civil War years. Jordan and Witts had transported a Washington printing press—the most popular type of iron, hand-operated press in the country at the time—by horse and wagon from West Virginia. The press was used to print the weekly newspaper until 1903 and was later donated to the Smithsonian Institution. While The Recorder was based in Highland County, it maintained a regional focus from the start before formally expanding into Bath and Alleghany Counties. The Recorder weathered downturns in the local newspaper industry to become one of the oldest continuously published papers in the Commonwealth.

One new marker tells the history of a Baptist church dating to the years of the American Revolution:

 

• In the 18th century, the Baptist denomination in the colony of Virginia quickly expanded despite restrictions imposed by the established Church of England on those who dissented from its teachings. Upper King and Queen Baptist Church in present-day King and Queen County was constituted in 1774. The congregation grew after the Revolutionary War under the leadership of pastor Theodorick Noel. Two influential leaders and writers who ranked among the nation’s most significant Baptist clergymen, pastors Robert Baylor Semple (1813-1827) and Andrew Broaddus I (1827-1848), were both baptized at Upper King and Queen. The present sanctuary was dedicated in 1861, when the church boasted more than 600 members, about half of whom were White and half Black. The church’s Black members left and established First Mount Olive Baptist Church after the end of the Civil War.

 

Two new markers recall the legacies of African Americans who fought for social, political, and educational justice in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras:

 

• James T. S. Taylor was a free Black shoemaker who grew up in Charlottesville. During his service as a sergeant in the 2nd U.S. Colored Infantry in the Civil War, he also worked as a newspaper correspondent, writing wartime letters that detailed Black soldiers’ experiences and protested racial injustice. Taylor later became a leader in Charlottesville’s Republican Party and was elected to be a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1867-68, where he championed Black suffrage and civil rights. In 1881, he supported the Readjuster Party, a biracial reform coalition that abolished the poll tax and invested in public education. An active Republican into the 20th century, Taylor is buried in Oakwood Cemetery.

 

• Born in Fauquier County in 1861 to enslaved parents, Lucy Addison became a pioneering educator who taught Black students in the City of Roanoke for 41 years. After receiving her education in Philadelphia, Addison moved to Roanoke in 1886 to teach. She served as principal of the Harrison School starting in 1917 and expanded the school’s curriculum beyond eighth grade, creating the city’s first four-year high school for Black students. Accredited in 1925, Harrison School was among the largest schools for Black students in Virginia led by a woman. Addison also sat on the board of nearby Burrell Memorial Hospital and of the Industrial Home School for Colored Girls in Hanover County. Roanoke opened the 19-classroom Lucy Addison High School in 1928. It was the city’s first public building named for a resident.

 

Two markers underscore the efforts of Black Virginians to strengthen their communities despite racial discrimination and oppression in the early 20th century:

 

• In 1908, Mary Simpson, the wife of a Virginia Union University professor, founded the Treble Clef and Book Lovers’ Club for Black women in the City of Richmond to foster appreciation of music and literature. In the early 20th century Black women’s clubs were popular outlets for leadership and civic engagement. The Treble Clef and Book Lovers’ Club sponsored arts events, supported public education, and awarded scholarships. Club members included Dorothy N. Cowling, the first female acting president of Virginia Union University, and Undine Smith Moore, who taught for 45 years at what is now Virginia State University and gained national recognition as the “Dean of Black Women Composers.” The club remains one of the oldest operating African American women’s book clubs in the United States.

 

• In the City of Staunton, William A. and Queen Elizabeth Miller, a Black couple, operated an orphanage for Black children on land that they bought. Incorporated in 1910, the orphanage was popularly called the Queen Miller Home and was formally named the Hayes Memorial Industrial School and Orphan’s Home. For more than 40 years, the Millers cared for and educated hundreds of children from across the Commonwealth and beyond. To raise funds for the orphanage and its programs, Queen Miller, a certified teacher with seminary training, held frequent lectures across communities and, with her husband, sold surplus produce from the orphanage’s farm. The Queen Miller Home earned a statewide reputation as a refuge for the homeless. It survived a fire in 1927 but burned down in 1955.

 

One approved marker in King William County focuses on Indigenous peoples’ struggle against a 1924 Virginia law that led state officials to omit them from official documents:

 

• Adopted in 1924 to protect White “purity,” Virginia’s “Act to Preserve Racial Integrity” harbored centuries of racial discrimination against Indigenous peoples, including the Mattaponi, Pamunkey, and Upper Mattaponi of King William County. State officials used the law to effectively define Virginians as either “White” or “Colored,” which resulted in most Native people losing their right to identify as “Indian” on official state documents. This erasure was known as a “paper genocide” and hindered tribes’ efforts to gain state and federal recognition. It also led many tribal members to leave the Commonwealth. The tribes protested these policies and continued to practice cultural traditions. In 1967 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the act unconstitutional.

 

The Board also approved two markers focused on schools for Black students that were built during 20th-century segregation in Virginia’s public schools:

 

• Whitesville Elementary School was built in 1925 to serve the children of Whitesville, an African American community in Accomack County that had developed alongside the town of Parksley in the 1880s. The school was built with $1,700 from the Black community and $4,150 in public funds. A contribution of $900 for the school’s construction came from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, a school-building campaign in the rural South established in 1917 and inspired by a partnership between Rosenwald, the president of Sears, Roebuck, and Co., and Booker T. Washington, the founding principal of Tuskegee Institute. The Rosenwald Fund helped build an estimated 5,000 schools for Black students across the South by leveraging local spending. Whitesville Elementary School closed in 1964. Accomack County Public Schools desegregated in 1970.

 

• More than seven years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared that segregated public schools in the nation were unconstitutional, Chesterfield County opened Dupuy Elementary School for Black students in January 1962. Virginia’s Pupil Placement Board, a group that frequently acted to preserve segregation in the Commonwealth’s schools, assigned several Black students to Dupuy after they applied to attend all-White schools. The families of the Black students sued in federal court with help from the Virginia NAACP. The case McLeod v. Chesterfield led to the county’s first enrollment by Black students in a previously all-White school in November 1962. Chesterfield County adopted a “freedom of choice” plan in 1966 and fully desegregated its schools in 1970. Dupuy became an annex to Ettrick Elementary and was demolished in 2020.

 

Following the Board of Historic Resources’ approval of the markers, it can take upwards of six months or more before a new marker is ready for installation. The marker’s sponsor covers the required $3,000 manufacturing expenses for a new sign.

Virginia’s historical highway marker program began in 1927 with installation of the first markers along U.S. Route 1. It is considered the oldest such program in the nation. Currently there are more than 2,600 state markers, mostly maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation, except in those localities outside of VDOT’s authority.

Full Text of Markers:

(VDOT must approve the proposed location for each marker in its right-of-way; local public works departments must do so in jurisdictions outside VDOT’s authority.)

King and Queen Baptist Church
When this church was constituted in 1774, the Baptist denomination in Virginia was rapidly expanding despite restrictions imposed on dissenters from the established Church of England. The congregation grew after the Revolutionary War under the leadership of pastor Theodorick Noel. Pastors Robert Baylor Semple (1813-1827) and Andrew Broaddus I (1827-1848), both baptized here, were influential leaders and writers who ranked among the nation’s most prominent Baptist clergymen. By 1861, when the present sanctuary was dedicated, the church had more than 600 members, about half White and half Black. After the Civil War, Black members departed and formed First Mount Olive Baptist Church.
Sponsor: Upper King and Queen Baptist Church
Locality: King and Queen County
Proposed Location: 1693 Bradley Farm Road

James T. S. Taylor (1840-1918)
James T. S. Taylor, a free Black shoemaker, grew up in Charlottesville and served as a sergeant in the 2nd U.S. Colored Infantry during the Civil War. As a newspaper correspondent, he wrote wartime letters detailing Black soldiers’ experiences and protesting racial injustice. He later became a leader in Charlottesville’s Republican Party. He was a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1867-68, where he championed Black suffrage and civil rights. In 1881, he supported the Readjuster Party, a biracial reform coalition that abolished the poll tax and invested in public education. Taylor remained an active Republican into the 20th century and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery.
Sponsor: John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History
Locality: Charlottesville
Proposed Location: 727-849 First Street S.

The Recorder
George M. Jordan and Philip E. Witts established The Recorder in Monterey in Oct. 1877 during a period of rapid growth for local journalism in the post-Civil War years. By horse and wagon they hauled a Washington printing press, the most popular type of iron, hand-operated press in America, from West Virginia. In use until 1903, the press was later donated to the Smithsonian Institution. Although based in Highland County, the weekly newspaper had a regional focus from its outset and later formally expanded into Bath and Alleghany Counties. Persisting despite downturns in the local newspaper industry, The Recorder became one of the oldest continuously published newspapers in Virginia.
Sponsor: The Recorder
Locality: Highland County
Proposed Location: 114 W. Main Street, Monterey

Lucy Addison (1861-1937)
Lucy Addison, a pioneering educator who served Black students in Roanoke for 41 years, was born in Fauquier Co. to enslaved parents. Educated in Philadelphia, she moved here to teach in 1886. She became principal of the Harrison School in 1917 and expanded its curriculum beyond grade eight, creating Roanoke’s first four-year Black high school. Accredited in 1925, this was among the largest schools for Black students in VA led by a woman. Addison sat on the board of nearby Burrell Memorial Hospital and of the Industrial Home School for Colored Girls in Hanover Co. In 1928, Roanoke opened the 19-classroom Lucy Addison High School, the city’s first public building named for a resident.
Sponsor: Roanoke City Public Schools
Locality: City of Roanoke
Proposed Location: Intersection of Burrell Street NW and Orange Avenue NW

Treble Clef and Book Lovers’ Club
Mary Simpson, the wife of a Virginia Union University professor, founded the Treble Clef and Book Lovers’ Club in 1908 to foster appreciation of music and literature. Black women’s clubs were popular outlets for leadership and civic engagement during this era. The club sponsored arts events, supported public education, and awarded scholarships. Members included Dorothy N. Cowling, the first female acting president of Virginia Union University, and Undine Smith Moore, who taught for 45 years at what is now Virginia State University and gained national recognition as the “Dean of Black Women Composers.” This is among the oldest operating African American women’s book clubs in the U.S.
Sponsor: Treble Clef and Book Lovers’ Club
Locality: City of Richmond
Proposed Location: 1214 W. Graham Road

Queen Miller Home
William A. and Queen Elizabeth Miller, an African American couple, operated an orphanage for Black children on land they purchased here. Incorporated in 1910 and later named the Hayes Memorial Industrial School and Orphan’s Home, it was popularly known as the Queen Miller Home. The Millers nurtured and educated hundreds of children from across Virginia and beyond for more than 40 years. Queen Miller, a certified teacher with seminary training, lectured widely to raise funds, which were supplemented by sales of surplus produce from the orphanage’s farm. The Queen Miller Home, which earned a statewide reputation as a refuge for the homeless, survived a fire in 1927 but burned down in 1955.
Sponsor: Friends of Miller-Jackson Institute for Historical Preservation & Education
Locality: City of Staunton
Proposed Location: 2624 W. Beverley Street

“Racial Integrity” and the Tribes of King William
Virginia’s “Act to Preserve Racial Integrity,” adopted in 1924 to protect White “purity,” reinforced centuries of racial discrimination against Indigenous peoples, including the Mattaponi, Pamunkey, and Upper Mattaponi of King William Co. State officials used the law to effectively define Virginians as “White” or “Colored,” denying most Native people the right to identify as “Indian” on official documents. Referred to as a “paper genocide,” this erasure hindered tribes’ efforts to gain state and federal recognition and led many tribal members to leave VA. The tribes protested these policies and continued to practice cultural traditions. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the act unconstitutional in 1967.
Sponsor: DHR
Locality: King William County
Proposed Location: King William Road/Rt. 30 at intersection with Horse Landing Road

Whitesville Elementary School
This school was built in 1925 to serve the children of Whitesville, an African American community that had developed alongside Parksley in the 1880s. A contribution of $900 came from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, created in 1917 after Rosenwald (president of Sears, Roebuck, and Co.) and Booker T. Washington (founding principal of Tuskegee Institute) had partnered in a school-building campaign. Rosenwald funding helped construct about 5,000 schools for Black students across the South by leveraging local spending. The Whitesville school, built with $1,700 from the Black community and $4,150 in public funds, closed in 1964. Accomack County Public Schools were not fully desegregated until 1970.
Sponsor: International Brotherhood of Yahshua’s Disciples
Locality: Accomack County
Proposed Location: 23459 Leslie Trent Road, Parksley

Dupuy Elementary School
Chesterfield County opened this school for African American students in Jan. 1962, more than seven years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board decision. After several Black students applied to attend all-White schools but were assigned to Dupuy by the state Pupil Placement Board—which frequently acted to preserve segregation—the families sued in federal court with the assistance of the Virginia NAACP. McLeod v. Chesterfield led to the county’s first enrollment by Black students in a previously all-White school in Nov. 1962. Chesterfield adopted a “freedom of choice” plan in 1966 and fully desegregated in 1970. Dupuy became an annex to Ettrick Elementary and was demolished in 2020.
Sponsor: Concerned Citizens of Ettrick
Locality: Chesterfield County
Proposed Location: 19700 Dupuy Meadows Drive

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