The Quick Overview
The St. Johns School, a Rosenwald School constructed in 1922-23, was built for the Cobham African American community near Gordonsville, Virginia area. The building with the T-shaped footprint follows Rosenwald Schools plan number 20, a two-teacher schoolhouse. After the school’s closing in 1954, it was purchased by a private owner and converted into their residence until St. John’s Baptist Church, next door, bought the 2.0-acre property in 2003.
About the Building
The Front
The St. Johns School is a five bay, one story, wood frame building with standing steam, gabled tin roof and a parged brick foundation, which is no longer visible. Two bays are on either side of a central projecting bay, and they form the industrial room. The school contains a series of vinyl double-hung sash windows, originally made of wood. Evidence of one door is no longer visible, except in the concrete steps that lead up to the side of the building, directly under this small window. The second bay from the right is where the front entrance is located. There is an inset entrance porch. The door is not original to the building. The replaced door exists where an original door once stood. The central, front gabled projecting bay consists of a single bank of three 9/9 double hung vinyl sash windows. The original central interior chimney is visible directly over the central projecting bay.
Image 2: West Façade, Exterior, St. Johns School. Glatt
The Southern Classroom
In the rear, the building has three banks of 9/9 double hung vinyl sash windows (identical to those of the industrial room), one door and a pair of smaller windows. The pair of smaller windows and the door occupies the far left bay where another bay of large windows would have been. While none of the exterior windows are original, the existing windows are mostly of the same size, shape, and location as the originals. The footprint of the interior space in the St. Johns School has been altered since its original construction in 1922. The current and only front entrance leads into the southern classroom (grades 1-4), which has been divided into two smaller rooms with an east-west running partitioning wall.
Image 3: East Wall, Central Southern Room, St. Johns School. Glatt
The Northern Classroom
The same can be found in the northern classroom (serving 5-6 grade). This dividing wall was added when the structure was converted into a private home after the schools closing. The plaster wall dividing the building into its two classrooms is original, matching the buildings outer plaster walls; although The Community School Plan indicates a removable partition. The majority of these plaster walls have painted wood beadboard wainscoting with chair rails and baseboard trim. There is the original approximately 3-inch wide wood flooring running north-south throughout, with strong evidence of staining and wear and tear. The interior doors are wood and have wood trim at the door frames.
Image 4: East Wall, Northern Most Room, St. Johns School. Glatt
The Integrity of the Building
Each of the two classrooms has a large walk-through closet on their west walls. These closet walls are clad in wood siding, possibly resembling the original exterior. The northern classrooms original entrance from the front has been closed and turned into another smaller closet for storage. Within this space, the original exterior wood siding has been preserved. The replacement windows have been installed in the original openings and retain the wood window trim and narrow sill, above the bead-board wainscoting. The ceiling throughout is finished with painted wood bead-board. The industrial room is accessible from both classrooms. This is of similar finish as the classrooms but has a brick chimney in the center of its east wall where the central stove once stood. The chimney has two openings, one leading into each of the individual classrooms, which provided heat to the school.
The physical integrity of architectural fabric on the exterior and interior is relatively good. Though there have been alterations made, such as the partition walls, and the addition of electricity, the 1920s wainscoting, flooring, and various other features are original and still in place.
For full text and image citations reference the two linked PDFs in the website footer, at the bottom of the page.