Lane High School (Charlottesville, Virginia)

Lane High School

Lane High School in its modern incarnation as the Albemarle County Office Building.
Address
401 McIntire Road
Charlottesville, Virginia, 22902
Information
Opened 1940[1]
Closed 1974
Grades 9-12
Color(s) orange and black █ █
Sports football, basketball, baseball, gymnastics, wrestling.
Mascot Black Knight
Publication Bumble Bee (magazine)[2]
Newspaper Lane Times[2]
Yearbook The Chain[1]

Lane High School, in Charlottesville, Virginia, was a public secondary school serving residents of Charlottesville and Albemarle County from 1940 until 1974. It was an all-white school until its court-ordered integration in 1959. Black students formerly attended Jackson P. Burley High School.[3] It became too small to accommodate the student body, and was replaced by Charlottesville High School.[4] In 1981, the building was converted for use as the Albemarle County Office Building, for which it has remained in use until the present day.[5]

The structure was designed by Lynchburg, Virginia architect Pendleton Scott Clark and was built in 1939 on the site of an African-American Episcopal chapel.[6] It was named after the former teacher and school superintendent James Waller Lane.[6]

Massive resistance

On September 10, 1958, federal courts ordered public schools in Charlottesville to integrate their racially segregated schools. In response, Virginia Governor James Lindsay Almond, Jr. ordered nine schools in Virginia to close, including Lane, under the authority of a series of state laws known as the Stanley plan, a part of the state's Massive Resistance policy. The school remained closed from September 19, 1958 until February 4, 1959, when Governor Almond reversed the state's policy and ordered the schools reopened and integrated.[7] During this period, "local residents were subjected to emotional appeals, threats, and predictions of dire consequences representing all points of view concerning segregation." Three African American students enrolled at Lane on September 8, 1959 without incident. Historian John Hammond Moore believes that the process of integrating Lane extended until approximately 1969, writing that it "was characterized by racial friction in some schools, notably Lane, but little actual violence."[8]

Athletics

Lane High School's football program is legendary in Charlottesville for its football team's 53-game winning streak, from 1962-7 under the coaching of Tommy "The Golden Greek" Theodose.[9][10]

Notable alumni

References

  1. 1 2 Provence, Lisa (2004-05-06). "Brown's birthday: The road to equality in Charlottesville". The Hook. Better Publications, L.L.C. Retrieved 2008-10-19. Now the Albemarle County Office Building, Lane High School, which opened to students in 1940, was Charlottesville's white high school when the Brown v. Board decision was handed down in 1954.
  2. 1 2 "Remembrance Registry for Mrs. June Dillard Knight". 2004-07-31. Retrieved 2008-10-19. Attending Lane High School, she exhibited the same attitude of interest in many facets of school life by working as editor-in chief of the Lane Times school paper, worked as editor of the Bumble Bee magazine, and she was on the staff to develop "The Chain" yearbook.
  3. ↑ Lassiter, Matthew; Andrew B. Lewis; Paul M. Gaston. The Moderates' Dilemma. University of Virginia Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-8139-1817-4. [T]he city operated Lane High School exclusively for whites and jointly ran the all-black Jackson P. Burley High School with Albemarle County.
  4. ↑ "About Walker Upper Elementary". County of Albemarle. Retrieved 2008-09-16. The history of Walker School began with the concept of Junior High Schools in Charlottesville in 1962, when solutions were sought to relieve overcrowding at Lane High School. Those decisions led to the development of plans for two schools, one on each side of town.
  5. ↑ "County to Celebrate 25th Year Anniversary of Lane High School Conversion into County Office Buildling [sic]" (Press release). County of Albemarle. 2006-10-25. Retrieved 2008-06-21. In the fall of 1981 divisions of Albemarle County government from six locations scattered around the county and Charlottesville came together for the first time when Lane High School underwent a $6 million conversion to become the new County Office Building.
  6. 1 2 McNair, Dave (2006-11-09). "Landmark design: County Office Building turns 25". The Hook. Better Publications, LLC. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  7. ↑ "Massive Resistance timeline". Retrieved 2008-06-22.
  8. ↑ Moore, John (1976). Albemarle, Jefferson's County, 1727-1976. Albemarle County Historical Society. pp. 434–235.
  9. ↑ Shampoe, Clay (2005). The Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Arcadia Publishing. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-7385-1776-6. Few can forget the amazing stream put together by Charlottesville's Lane High as they tallied 53 straight victories during the 1960s under the guidance of the "Golden Greek," Tommy Theodose.
  10. ↑ Goldsmith, Will (2008-09-23). "When football was king". C-Ville Weekly. Portico Publications. Retrieved 2008-10-19. Tommy "the Golden Greek" Theodose, high school coach from 1959 to 1979, presided over the most memorable streak in the history of the city schools, a 53-game unbeaten streak that went from 1962 to 1967 for Lane High School.
  11. ↑ "Play Ball!". (dead link)The Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  12. ↑ "Staige D. Blackford Jr.". Virginian-Pilot. 2003-06-29.

Coordinates: 38°02′04″N 78°29′03″W / 38.03444°N 78.48417°W / 38.03444; -78.48417

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