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Second Street 5
Virtual Walking Tour
The Odd Fellows Hall
African-American trustees for the Waterford Lodge No. 2631
Grand United Order of Odd Fellows erected this frame structure
as a meeting hall in 1893. At one point the building housed
an "industrial school" for African American pupils.
Owners early this century converted the lodge hall into a
home by adding interior partitions to the original two large
rooms and moving the door from the street side of the building
to the south side. The home was extensively restored following
a fire in the early 1990s. |
The Second Street School
In 1866 Quaker Reuben Schooley (1826-1900) sold this property
to the "colored people of Waterford and vicinity." The
local African-American population, with financial help from
the Quakers, promptly erected a school building they could
also use for church functions. This is one of the older one-room
schoolhouses in Loudoun County and may be the oldest African-American
house of worship. The school finally closed its doors in
1957. The Waterford Foundation bought the property in 1977
and developed a living
history program that allows schoolchildren to experience
a typical 1880s school day in a segregated school. More
Second Street School history
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The Shawen House
Although it appears on an 1853 map of the village, the earliest
known transaction involving this building is an 1879 sale
from William Nettle's heirs to Milton Schooley (1833-1908),
a Quaker miller who owned The Dormers next door. This may
be another house constructed by Nettle. In later years it
was the home of the Shawen family, relatives of the Schooleys. |
Schooley Mill Barn
Just visible beyond the Shawen House and The Dormers is
a red barn. This is the remaining structure of a thriving
grist and sawmill complex built by Mahlon Janney in 1803.
For more than 60 years after 1840 the mill was owned by John
Schooley (1797-1868) or his son Milton. It closed in 1920.
Seven years later Edgar Beans converted the old sawmill to
the barn visible today. |
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