Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 03/18/1975
NRHP Listing Date 12/02/1974
NHL Listing Date 12/02/1974
NRHP Reference Number 74002126
This brick cottage honors an African American woman who gained national repute as an educator. In 1908, Henrico County instructor Virginia Estell Randolph (1874-1958) was appointed the nation’s first Jeanes supervising industrial teacher. The Jeanes supervisor was the concept of a wealthy Philadelphian, Anna T. Jeanes, who established a fund to employ black supervisors for vocational training in the South. The program became institutionalized under the Negro Rural School Fund, and spread throughout the southern states and eventually abroad. Virginia Randolph thus became a model for thousands of teacher supervisors. Throughout her career she maintained an interest in Mountain Road School where she first worked in the 1890s. The school was reestablished as the Virginia Randolph Education Center in 1969, and the 1937 cottage where Ms. Randolph taught home economics and kept an office is now a museum honoring the distinguished educator, who is buried in front.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated: August 4, 2022
