Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 08/21/1984
NRHP Listing Date 10/04/1984
NRHP Reference Number 84000058
Fishburne Military School in the city of Waynesboro was founded in 1878 by James A. Fishburne, a student and protégé of Robert E. Lee. It was while attending what was then Washington College in Lexington that Fishburne was inspired by Lee to become an educator. The school flourished and in 1916 Staunton architect T. J. Collins was commissioned to design a new barracks. Following the precedent of A. J. Davis’s Virginia Military Institute, the barracks employed a castellated Gothic style. The composition has since become downtown Waynesboro’s chief architectural landmark. Collins’s sons, Samuel and William, continued the tradition with their designs the for the administration/gymnasium building and barracks additions. Fishburne has developed into one of the state’s most distinguished military academies, continuously rated an honor military school under the U. S. Junior Army Reserve Officers Training Corps since 1924. It is one of the few military schools in Virginia to continue in operation.
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Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated: December 3, 2021
