Dover School #2 (1930 - 1966)

PRIVATE PROPERTY. EXERCISE CAUTION AS YOU OBSERVE FROM THE ROAD.

This school is located across from the Moorefield Baptist Church (see sign in photos) near 525 Dover Fort Run Road, Moorefield.

When the peak of student enrollment happened in Fort Run, those students passed through the doors of the second Dover School for their education. The second Dover School, or the “New Dover School” was established around 1930. As seen with its predecessor, this school also became a hub for the community. The school before you closed around 1966 and was used as storage for a time by the Board of Education before falling into the state you see it in today.

This is a Mountain Heritage Trails project made possible through the support of the Hardy County Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area AmeriCorps program, and the West Virginia University Fulcrum Project.

Heritage Trail Project Coordinator: Shefa Nola Benoit

Researchers: Mary Ann Steinmiller & Shefa Nola Benoit

Unlike the first Dover School, this one is a two-room schoolhouse and often had two teachers. Inside the school, there is a kitchen that was added before 1950 and fitted with a wood and coal stove. Since it was larger than the first schoolhouse, this school had an enrollment of approximately fifty students in grades first through sixth. The students sat at desks with lifted tops and inkwells and sat upon benches that opened to house their books. 

Also not seen in the first school, but implemented at this one, was the element of play. The students could wander as far as they wished, as long as they could “hear the bell to return to class.” Some activities that students engaged in were swinging from grapevines, rolling in old automobile tires, and playing with homemade balls and bats. Mrs. Lena Coby recalls “playing such games as hide and seek, red rover, which was her favorite, crack the whip, and London Bridge.” She also said how marbles were the favorite game of the boys.

This new school did not have running water initially, so students got their water from a stone cooler in the back of the school, similar to the format of their earlier school. Later though, water was supplied through an inside fountain and used in the kitchen. Even though there was a kitchen within the school, both teachers and students packed their own lunches. 

If you were to step back in time, you could catch a glimpse at what the students would often wear to school. In the winter they would wear long handle underwear, long brown stockings, dresses, bib overalls, pants, and lace oxfords. In the summer, they wore “bobbie socks” and Black pattern leather T-strap shoes–while others wore what they could find. Any additional clothing not currently being worn was hung on the walls since there were no cloakrooms provided.

Sickness plagued this school on several occasions. In November of 1933, a traveling nurse by the name of Miss Flora Williams visited the school due to it having several cases of scarlet fever. This year was also the year when enrollment was “larger than ever before, that number being seventy.” They had to tear out a partition to enlarge a room to fit all the students. The following year, cases of chickenpox spread through the school. Fortunately, the vast majority of the students were feeling well enough to put on a Christmas play soon after. Unfortunately, this school closed around 1966. It was used as a storage area by the Board of Education for a time, before being abandoned and falling into the state you see it in today.

Board of Education, Moorefield, WV. May 5, 1976.

Cullers, Pam & Shot, Beverly. “The Good Ole Days at Dover School: The Old Dover School.”

Coby, Mrs. Lena, Interviewed April 17, 1976.

Moorefield Examiner. “Fort Run Notes.” November 15, 1933, 4.

Moorefield Examiner. “Fort Run Notes.” November 8, 1933, 3.