Group wants to preserve culture of Schoolfield community

By Bernard Baker

Published: October 18, 2008

A group of local residents are working to keep the flavor of a Dan River Inc. mill village alive for future generations.

James Hyler said the Schoolfield Preservation Foundation Inc. was formed with the intent to build a museum to show off the history of the community. The group got its start after the effort to save the Schoolfield Recreation Center from being torn down was not successful.

“We sat down and said even though we lost, the history and the culture in the Schoolfield Village needs to be preserved,” Hyler said Friday.

The group has a board of directors that includes former Danville City Councilman E. Stokes Daniels Jr. and Anne Moore Sparks of the Danville Department of Community Development, among others. They want to see a museum somewhere in the Schoolfield community.

Hyler said the group wants to work to keep the heritage and culture of the mill village by showing what they contributed. The village was a part of Pittsylvania County until it was annexed by Danville in the 1950s.

Dorothy “Dot” Handy, who heads up the Schoolfield High School Reunion Committee, said the people who grew up in the village stuck together. They decided to have a high school reunion in 1984 and they’re going strong nearly 25 years later.

“It’s like a family feeling,” Handy said about growing up in Schoolfield. “It’s a little deeper than a bunch of people who went to school together.”

The group’s vision is to save documents, artifacts, product material and photographs taken either in Schoolfield or in the Dan River plant located there.

They are in the process of making oral histories from people who grew up in Schoolfield. Hyler said they have done a couple so far, but hope to record 25 to 35 of these interviews.

Hyler hopes a museum for Schoolfield will be similar to the Textile Heritage Historic Site built for the Cooleemee, N.C., mill that closed in the late 1960s.

Information from this group shows they have a Mill Village Museum, RiverPark and a Mill Family Life Museum that will be finished soon, according to the group’s Web site.

“We’re bringing the Cooleemee Museum here,” Hyler said.

Handy said if the Cooleemee community can pull together and develop a museum, Schoolfield should be able to as well.

“There’s a place for us,” she said.

Hyler is working with Dan River Inc. officials to obtain boxes of material relating to the Schoolfield plant. He wants to work to keep these items here.

Artifacts and other materials can be found in people’s homes that the group hopes will be donated or loaned to the museum.

Fundraising letters have been sent to people in the Danville area who might want to help. An anonymous donor has put up $100,000 in stocks and bonds if funds can be matched.

Part of their work includes trying to preserve some of the main buildings in Schoolfield, but that is not a primary focus, Hyler said.

To help the Schoolfield Preservation Foundation, contact them at P.O. Box 2675, Danville, VA 24541.

Contact Bernard Baker at (434) 791-7986 or