BY JANE BLOODWORTH ROWE
PUNGO — The historic Pleasant Ridge School needs repairs to its 19th Century wooden frame, and local organizations – including Creeds Ruritan Club, the Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia African American Cultural Center and members of Asbury Christian Fellowship Church – are coming together to make sure that it gets them.
Creeds Ruritan Club is hosting a barbecue dinner to raise the needed funds from noon to 5 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 30, at its community complex, 1057 Princess Anne Road in Back Bay. The Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office will donate labor for the project, and volunteers from Asbury Christian Fellowship Church will also help with the efforts, according to Pastor John Calvin Smith.
The quaint white building, located next to Asbury Christian Fellowship Church, 1392 Princess Anne Road, was originally located on Charity Neck Road and was part of a school construction project that began in 1886, when lots were purchased for the construction of schools on Charity Neck Road and on Princess Anne Road.
In those days of segregated schools, the two-room schoolhouse that was originally built on Charity Neck Road was constructed for white children, while Pleasant Ridge School on Princess Anne Road, was built for African-American children.
City Councilmember Barbara Henley, who represents the Princess Anne District, noted in her 2013 book Glimpses of Down-County History: Southern Princess Anne County, that the African-American school burned about 1918, and the building was replaced with one room of the Charity School, which had closed and relocated at about the same time.
That school closed in 1956 when the small community-based African-American schools were consolidated and Seaboard Elementary School opened. For a while, the building was left to deteriorate.
In 1989, Henley spearheaded efforts to restore it. Funds were raised through volunteer efforts, including a community dinner, and labor was furnished by the Sheriff’s Office.
Time continued to take its toll, and now the building is in need of maintenance, particularly to its flooring and sides, Smith said. Henley and City Councilmember Rocky Holcomb, who represents the Kempsville District and serves as the chief deputy in the Sheriff’s Office, are spearheading the efforts with community partners.
The workforce will include one deputy and two inmates, according to Toni Guagenti, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office. She added that she expects that this labor will reduce anticipated project costs from $8,138 to $5,968.
“This one-room schoolhouse is an important piece of Virginia Beach history that we are honored to restore,” Sheriff Ken Stolle said. “In addition to saving taxpayers money, this project and others like it allow the workforce inmates to give back to society and learn valuable job skills that they can use when they are released from jail.”
Blackwater farmer Don Horsley is preparing the barbecue for the Oct. 30 fundraiser using his traditional recipe for the sauce. Horsley, a Ruritan Club member, said that the club’s goal is to sell 1,000 tickets.
Smith said that once the repairs are made, church members hope to open the building to visitors on a regular basis.
“That school is a part of our ministry,” he said, “and it’s used for people who want to come and look at it. It’s a historical setting.”
Visit creedsruritan.com/school-fundraiser.html for more information about the fundraiser or to purchase tickets or to make a donation. Call Asbury United Christian Church at (757) 572-5303 for more information about the school.
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