620 Simms Avenue
|
Last updated: March 25, 2024
|
Direction from Lucy F. Simms House to site 18:
- Continue east on E Johnson St
- E Johnson St ends at Simms Ave (The Center is the brick building in front of you)
- Make a left onto Simms Ave
- Then make right into the Lucy F. Simms Center parking lot
In September 1939, the colored students would begin a new era in education at the Lucy F. Simms School. Located on the grounds of the former Hilltop Farm (c. 1820-1874), the new brick two-story building housed elementary through high school grade levels for African American children in Harrisonburg, Rockingham County, and Page County. Colored students traveled multiple miles from Elkton, Grottoes, Bridgewater, New Market, and Mount Jackson. Each long route had its dedicated African American “bus driver” who obtained any vehicle available to transfer students from around the county to school at Simms and back home.
Located at 620 Simms Avenue, the new Simms School differed from Effinger Street School by offering high school, vocational, and college preparatory courses. The Lucy F. Simms School operated from 1938 to 1965. Although desegregation began in 1954 following the ruling of the US Supreme Court in Brown v. Broad of Education of Tokope, Harrisonburg was hesitant to proceed until receiving instruction from the Virginia Department of Education almost ten years later. The city gradually integrated the remaining students at Lucy F. Simms into the white schools in the area. After 33 years of operating as a black school, Lucy F. Simms School was closed. The Newtown lost an important center of the community.
In 2004, Lucy F. Simms School was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. The building became the Lucy F. Simms Continuing Education Center a year later, which opened a space for after-school programs and offices. The structure has been added on, too, but the original part of the building still faces Simms Avenue. The original lockers, stage, and several classrooms remain to remind us of the school’s significant past. An exhibit titled Celebrating Simms opened in 2016 to showcase the history of African American education in Harrisonburg and the legacy of educator Lucy Frances Simms.
Located at 620 Simms Avenue, the new Simms School differed from Effinger Street School by offering high school, vocational, and college preparatory courses. The Lucy F. Simms School operated from 1938 to 1965. Although desegregation began in 1954 following the ruling of the US Supreme Court in Brown v. Broad of Education of Tokope, Harrisonburg was hesitant to proceed until receiving instruction from the Virginia Department of Education almost ten years later. The city gradually integrated the remaining students at Lucy F. Simms into the white schools in the area. After 33 years of operating as a black school, Lucy F. Simms School was closed. The Newtown lost an important center of the community.
In 2004, Lucy F. Simms School was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. The building became the Lucy F. Simms Continuing Education Center a year later, which opened a space for after-school programs and offices. The structure has been added on, too, but the original part of the building still faces Simms Avenue. The original lockers, stage, and several classrooms remain to remind us of the school’s significant past. An exhibit titled Celebrating Simms opened in 2016 to showcase the history of African American education in Harrisonburg and the legacy of educator Lucy Frances Simms.
References
“Celebrating Simms: The Story of the Lucy F. Simms School,” James Madison University & the Shenandoah Black Heritage Center in association with Billo Harper, accessed March 12, 2024, https://omeka.lib.jmu.edu/simms/celebrating-simms-exhibit.
Dale E. MacAllister, Lucy Frances Simms, From Slavery to Reverend Public Service, (Lot’s Wife Publishing, 2020).
“Celebrating Simms: The Story of the Lucy F. Simms School,” James Madison University & the Shenandoah Black Heritage Center in association with Billo Harper, accessed March 12, 2024, https://omeka.lib.jmu.edu/simms/celebrating-simms-exhibit.
Dale E. MacAllister, Lucy Frances Simms, From Slavery to Reverend Public Service, (Lot’s Wife Publishing, 2020).