The stories behind how schools got their names

Editor's note: This is part 1 of a two-part story on how county schools received their names. Additional schools will be included in part 2 in the Oct. 1 issue.

Photo courtesy of Chesterfield County Public Schools

Ever wondered who the namesake is for Marguerite Christian Elementary School? What about A.M. Davis or Chalkley? Looking at the county's school names not only teaches us about some of our prominent citizens, but also allows us a snapshot in time, revealing some of what was happening in the county when a particular school was built.

Although some schools, such as Crestwood and Evergreen, proved elusive for nameresearch, others like James River and Enon are self-evident. The following information, from the library and files of the Chesterfield Historical Society, allows us to learn more about our county and its 20th century past.

Bellwood Elementary

Named for a Canadian agriculturalist who moved to Virginia in pursuit of a Southern climate. The school was undoubtedly named after the Bellwood mansion, which stands beside Jefferson Davis Highway within the Defense Supply Center Richmond compound. Built around 1800, this mansion had various other names prior to its purchase by the Bellwood family in 1888. Interestingly, Richard Gregory, who built the Bellwood plantation home, owned 1,000 acres of land and was one of the wealthiest men in Chesterfield County in the 19th century. His granddaughter, Lavinia, married Maj. Augustus Drewry, to whom the home was conveyed in 1847. President Jeff Davis met with Confederate officers on May 12, 1864, at Bellwood to plan the military action at Drewry's Bluff that kept Federal forces led by General Benjamin Butler at bay for several months.

Photo courtesy of Chesterfield County Public Schools

Bensley Elementary

"New….Beautiful….Healthful! Modern Suburb with modern conveniences," reads the headline of the ad in the Richmond News Leader for Saturday, Aug. 14, 1909. Messrs. A. W. Bensley and R.C. Bensley, who also owned the lumber mill next door that furnished the building materials, were selling already-built homes on 2-4 acre lots. The Village of Bensley was started in 1888 when A. W., from Hamilton, Ontario, bought a plantation of 430 acres, called Chester Hill. The Bensley brothers developed the acreage surrounding the plantation home into Bensley Village, Chesterfield's first planned community. Notable historic features of the Bensley community are the Falling Creek Ironworks and Wayside Park, Virginia's first state wayside, where the famous double-arched bridge was once part of the Manchester-Petersburg Turnpike. Regrettably, the remnants of the bridge were lost during Hurricane Gaston, although efforts to rebuild it are ongoing.

Beulah Elementary (pictured above)

Beulah United Methodist Church has a directory with this notation, written by Reverend Raymond Turner, senior minister: "Beulah Church drew its name from the Bible (Isaiah 62:4). And the Beulah community drew its name from the church. And thus it is that, today, no one can travel far without encountering, in the name of this or that institution, organization, or location, a visible reminder of God's promise to His faithful: Beulah…. oneness with …God." The Beulah area is the junction of Hopkins and Beulah Roads in the northeastern part of Chesterfield.

Bon Air Elementary

French for "good air," this Victorian resort town was popular in the late 1800s. Before it was incorporated into the resort town, the area had been called "Brown's Summit," after landowner John Brown, who started the Jahnke Road farm. Commuters by train from downtown Richmond frequented this popular destination.

Chalkley Elementary (pictured above)

H. L. Chalkley was chairman of the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors, serving for 28 years prior to 1947. The 1880 census map of Chesterfield shows a Chalkley family homesite in the location of the current elementary school. It's not clear which of these Chalkleys the school was named for.

Clover Hill Elementary

Named for the home in the Winterpock community that was built around 1775 and renamed for the rampant growth of clover by owner Martha Reid Cox around 1834.

Crenshaw Elementary

Thelma Crenshaw was a Richmonder, and a graduate of John Marshall High School and James Madison University. She retired in 1967 after 42 years of service to Chesterfield County Public Schools. Crenshaw died in 1994.

Curtis Elementary

Built in 1959, C.E. Curtis Elementary School was named in honor of Clarence E. Curtis Sr., former chairman of the Chesterfield County School Board. Interestingly, the completion of this school marked the end of an uncertain and contentious period in the history of Chesterfield's school system.

The late 1950s brought a population boom to Chesterfield, with an expanding school-age population. The school board was faced with the dilemma of how to serve these children. About 1,300 new students entered school in September of 1956 in Chesterfield. They couldn't find enough spaces to hold them and rooms in churches, community centers and private clubs were rented. Some children didn't even know their school's name because they never actually entered its building, and many were in an official school building only for a homeroom period before being bussed elsewhere. In response to this urgent situation, the board voted in 1957 to build five new schools and to add onto 11 others.

In the meantime, the U.S. Supreme Court was hearing Brown v. the Board of Education and Chesterfield's school board, as well as its legislators, was watching to see how the desegregation mandate would affect the county and whether money raised in bond issues would be made available to all schools, or just those not integrated.

Several groups proposed solutions to the overcrowding situation, and the school bond issue of 1956 became the first in the county to be rejected by voters. Construction was "on hold," teachers were unsure of their status, and citizens pondered how to get their children educated. Schools went to secondshifts, and the board faced a shortage of 127 classrooms!

Four years after the prior bond issue, bids put out for school construction were coming in much higher than the amount the bonds would have raised. The school board asked the board of supervisors for deficit financing, but the supervisors turned them down.

Finally, the citizens of Chesterfield took matters into their own hands and formed a coalition called "Better Schools for Chesterfield." Their platform was a new bond referendum. The school board and board of supervisors endorsed it, and $4.5 million was approved. Curtis, Hening, Southampton (which has since been annexed into Richmond) and Harrowgate elementary schools were opened in 1959.

Marguerite Christian Elementary

This supervisor of elementary education brought Project Head Start to Chesterfield County in 1966. The program, serving preschool children from low-income families, had been used and discontinued at a school in Midlothian. A group of teachers, ministers and parents met with a Washington, D.C. representative of the Head Start program who encouraged them to apply for a grant. The deadline for the application was the next Monday! Working all weekend, this group prepared the application, typed by Mrs. Christian, and hand postmarked by the post office late Sunday evening. The result was a $20,000 grant, which enabled the program to be restarted in a local church. When the new superintendent of schools visited the program in its church home, he ordered that it be moved back across the street to its original school in Midlothian!