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The Chatsworth School Museum
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As part of tours of the Chatsworth School Museum in Varina on June 7 and 8 that were also given by Gail Sailes, volunteer organizer Stephenne Belle points to the name Odell Crawley scratched into a desk.
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Crawley appears on the far right of a 1948 class photograph.
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Volunteer organizer Stephenne Belle
The Chatsworth School Museum, a one-room schoolhouse built in 1915 in the Antioch community of Varina, held an open house on June 7 and 8 to celebrate its legacy and unveil a plaque commemorating its history.
The school taught Black first through fourth graders during the age of public school segregation. According to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Julius Rosenwald of Sears, Roebuck and Company contributed a matching grant to fund its construction before he established his Rosenwald Fund in 1917.
Henrico County closed the school in 1956 as it replaced one- and two-room schoolhouses. It sat abandoned until Antioch Baptist Church acquired the building and land in 2001 to restore its vernacular Classical Revival-style structure. Work was completed in 2018; it was added to state and national landmark registers in 2022.
