"My Great Uncle, Arthur Hood (we called him "Uncle Woo Hoo" due to his trick of slipping out his dentures and whistling very loud so as to startle the kids at family gatherings), on Santa's lap/ in training to take over as the next Miller & Rhoad's Santa"
"Woo Hoo in his Santa costume, with his wife, Frances Hood, on his lap. She hand-sewed all of his velvet costumes. We called her 'Aunt Ditty'"
"John Marshall High School opened in September 1909, even before it was completed, with grades 8-11. It was named for John Marshall (1755-1835), the eminent Virginia jurist and Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The school was located on the site that had been his garden; the John Marshall House still stands in the same block.
Ground was broken for this building on March 23, 1908; the cornerstone was laid on September 30, 1908 (its contents were turned over to the Valentine Museum in 1972). The annual report for the year ended July 31, 1909, includes a picture of John Marshall High School. The dedication events (December 9, 1909), spanning a day, attracted well over 1,200 persons and included parades, a chorus, and a 21gun salute from the Richmond Howitzers as the flag was hoisted. The large three-story stone building had an impressive temple portico with four Doric columns and a 1,500-seat auditorium (but no gymnasium).
When John Marshall was conceived and built, it was considered the grandest, most expensive schoolhouse ever erected in the South. Local newspaper articles referred to it as "The People's University" because its planners intended it to be a higher education building for the great majority of people who were not privileged to attend high school and college at that time. John Marshall was said to have a prestige unequaled by any other public high school in the state.
John Marshall closed in June 1960, and the faculty and students were transferred to the new John Marshall High School on Old Brook Road. A School Board resolution of October 26, 1960, declared the building surplus to the City and stated: 'The building and grounds are a part of the Civic Center, and the abandonment of John Marshall to become a part of the Civic Center was one of the conditions that led in the building of the two new high schools...the John Marshall building is now located in an area that is primarily commercial, and therefore has become an undesirable site for a public high school..." The decision to demolish the old building met with some protest, but it was razed in September-October-November 1961; gavels made from its timbers were presented to School Board members in February 1962. The John Marshall Courts Building is now located on the site of the old John Marshall High School."
"Bellevue School, constructed in 1874, is an unusual surviving example of an early public school building. Located at the northwest corner of East Broad and North Twenty-Second streets, the one-story brick building with projecting front ell and recessed entrance arcade was originally a two-story structure before a hurricane removed the second story in 1950. The school has a brick water table, recessed brick panels featuring tall segmental-arched sash windows with brick label molds, and a simple brick cornice and parapet--the result of the removal of the second story. A one-story brick service building to the rear dates from 1905. The building served as Bellevue School until a new school was built at the corner of East Grace and Twenty-Sixth streets in 1914. The old school was converted into condominiums in 1978."First up we have a shot of this building from 1977, looking abandoned. Click the photos below for the high resolution images.
