Belmead Exhibit_Compiled3R.ai

BUILDING ADAPTATION
Re-authoring Identity over Time
A tradition of re-purposing buildings and landscape features has pervaded the history of Belmead. The Drexel sisters
appropriated the plantation of one of the largest slaveholders in the South for two schools for African Americans, places
of education and advancement. Belmead was converted for use as the St. Emma Industrial and Agricultural College, and
the Cocke mansion became the administration building and hub of the new school. To make it more serviceable, an
addition on the west side of the house replaced the original kitchen wing. The reuse of materials and even entire buildings
was a common practice for school-era construction. Plantation-era buildings were often reused, moved, renovated and
expanded to fit the needs of the school, as well as for symbolic purposes. A powerful physical statement of the schools’
mission for African-American education was achieved through re-aligning a picturesque board-and-batten slave quarter
to face the academic quadrangle and reusing it as early dormitory space.
The 1840s stone sawmill is another outstanding example of adaptation in the school era. The mill was appropriated and
expanded with two new floors above and a large frame addition at the side. The seamless addition of stories with similar
materials exemplifies the site’s themes of local materials, economy and permanence. Later, in the post-World War II era,
the schools recycled military Quonset huts as gymnasiums, classroom space and for social events.
Sawmill, late 19th Century
Sawmill with expansion, 1913
Many of the outbuildings have fallen into disrepair since the schools closed, but efforts are underway to continue the
tradition of adaptation by finding new uses for remaining structures in Belmead’s landscape. The Belmead Riding Club,
established by the Catlett family, has kept many of the old outbuildings in working order since the early 1990s. The club
has reused remaining structures for their barns, quarantine stable and office spaces. Recent renovation of the stable
revealed beautiful pressed tin ceilings in several of the stalls. The tin matches material believed to have been reclaimed
from the Belmead mansion. In maintaining and renovating the stable today, the riding club is participating in a long
history of adaptive reuse on the Belmead property. The granary, the oldest building on site, underwent the first phase of
a substantial stabilization and restoration program in 2008. The long-term plan for the Granary includes the
establishment of an eco-spirituality center.
The landscape‘s history of reuse continues through the extensive farming of a preserved land rich in natural resources.
Many of the old paths and roads have been brought back to life as horse trails. Hardwoods planted by Cocke, envisioning
generations of sustainable forestry, still stand and grow on the property. Periodic timber harvests help sustain and support
the current residents, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.
VOCATIONS AT ST. EMMA
Greatest Endeavors: Scientific Agriculture & Skilled Mechanics
In the plantation era, the Belmead slave community
represented a broad range of skilled and
unskilled work including agricultural field hands,
carpenters, stone masons, a wheelwright,
shepherds, and other livestock specialists, cooks,
and domestic servants.
Agriculture and the trades continued to play a
prominent role in the school-era curriculum. The
Morrells believed that African Americans would
achieve progress through skilled labor instead of
academic pursuits. This notion of uplift was a
common if controversial educational theory of the
times, propounded by Booker T. Washington at
Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In the process of
learning skills, the students contributed to the
operation of their own school, served the
surrounding community, and shipped wagons they
manufactured throughout the South.
While the agricultural techniques taught at the
school were the latest technology, the departments
changed little over time.
The agricultural
department had instructors knowledgeable in the
management of the dairy, garden, piggery,
poultry, animal husbandry, and farm crops.
The trade school departments also taught state of
the art skills. In contrast to agriculture, the trades
offerings changed dramatically over the school
era, reflecting technological changes in the wider
world. Some trades were present in various
fashions throughout the school era, including
masonry,
tailoring,
carpentering,
and
blacksmithing. Others were introduced or retired
in response to the market. The automobile
rendered carriage and wagon building and
harness making obsolete, for example, but the
schools added automobile mechanics to its list of
trade skills offered.
Portion of Cocke’s 1857 Slave Inventory, indicating the slaves’ names, age, occupation, and value.
Industrial Class, 1913.
BELMEAD ACADEMICS
Education, Work, and Gender During the School-Era
The different experiences of students at the two schools are best understood in the gendered differences in language of
the schools’ curriculum. While the boys at St. Emma were expected to become “leaders in military and civilian life,” St.
Francis’ young ladies were expected to maintain a Christian home, being trained primarily in academics and domestic
skills. The boys were able to participate in both military and industrial activities, preparing them for a life of leadership
and discipline within their respective communities.
The curriculum at St. Francis varied throughout the years, including classes in domestic science, nursing, teacher training,
music, sewing, and marketing. Within the walls of both the school and the chapel, St. Francis girls were trained to use the
“hand as well as the heart and mind [to] exert a widespread influence for good upon their race and people.” The
founders of St. Emma, the Morrells, ascribed to the Tuskegee mission that “agriculture is the best hope for the Negro,”
initially favoring vocational education over academic subjects. Over the years academics grew in importance as the
school shifted towards training students for enrollment in colleges and in military academies.
St. Francis classroom, 1920s
St. Francis-St. Emma combined dance, 1960s
Cheerleaders, mid-20th century
St. Francis’ architecture mirrored contemporary society’s requirements for surveillance and domesticity within a female
educational environment. The school building provided almost all necessary living and learning spaces for the girls
attending St. Francis. The building housed classrooms, parlors, and dining rooms, but also dormitory rooms for both the
students and Sisters in charge of teaching. In contrast, the St. Emma curriculum allowed the boys opportunities to move
around the property, working the land, constructing school buildings, manufacturing at the trade school, and other projects.
The boys’ campus featured separate spaces and buildings for living and learning, scattered across the landscape.
St. Francis de Sales shared social activities with St. Emma’s Military Academy. In 1925, the St. Francis de Sales School
was accredited by the Commonwealth of Virginia and continued to enrich the lives of young African American women until
1970, when it was permanently closed.
THE SPIRIT OF PLACE
Ministry Traced Through Time at Belmead
Entrance to
Chapel at
St. Francis de
Sales School
Community Worship at St. Emma
Spirituality is an essential part to the Belmead narrative. St. Francis was administered by the Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament while several religious and lay orders administered St. Emma. The two schools give the Belmead landscape
a spiritual dimension that makes them significant expressions of Catholic faith and pedagogical traditions. The
religious pedagogies of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament were reflected in Belmead’s landscape. Architectural
expressions of Catholic symbolism are seen explicitly on the exterior and interior of St. Francis de Sales, as the school was
intended “to make the atmosphere of the school like that of a truly Christian home.” The attached chapel was integral to
the daily lives of the students attending St. Francis. Although the school was ecumenical, from sunrise at 5:30 AM when
morning prayers and Mass was held, till sunset when evening prayers were recited, Catholic spirituality and belief were
integral to the students’ educational experience.
Today FrancisEmma, Inc., a nonprofit organization under the sponsorship of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament,
recognizes Belmead as a sacred and holy space while promoting an ethic of ecojustice as well as social justice with
programs tailored to “ecological, historical, cultural, literary, and educational pursuits that connect knowledge and
experience through interaction with the natural world.”
The sisters who currently live on the Belmead
property describe these sets of oak trees as “the
Sisters” and “the Brothers,” reflecting the religious
history of the schools that once operated on the site.
The Sisters and Brothers trees, located in the
agriculture fields south of Belmead mansion, serve
as a reminder of the narrative of the religious and
educational mission of this property.
Cornerstone of St. Francis de Sales School.
ERASING AN ERA
Claver Hall
Morrell Hall
Colby Hall
St. Edward’s
Belmead
1960s aerial of quad
Demolition of Colby Hall, 1974
Water Tower and St. Edward’s Chapel
1974
Peter Claver Hall, c. 1930 Postcard
Peter Claver Hall, 1974
Belmead
2010 aerial of quad
2010
Water Tower and St. Edward’s Chapel
c.1930
Demolition, Decline and the Future of the Belmead Property
St. Emma Parade Grounds, 2010. Belmead, with school era addition, is seen on the far right.
St. Francis Tower Collapse, 2010
2010 Design Charrette
Future
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, student enrollment at St. Emma and St. Francis declined
sharply. Educational opportunities for African American had slowly improved throughout the
United States and between 1969 and 1972 the number of students at St. Emma fell from 340
to 93. The last class graduated from St. Emma in 1972. St. Francis had been closed since
1970. Concern over maintenance costs and liability led the owners of Belmead to demolish
all but a handful of the buildings - a process that took 8 months. Reflecting preservation
priorities of the era, the Belmead mansion - nominated to the National Register of Historic
Places just five years prior - was preserved, and now stands alone at the edge of the once
bustling academic quadrangle. Efforts are now underway to celebrate the history of this
place and to envision its future. In 2010, people from the University of Virginia, the National
Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation Virginia, the Virginia Department of Historic
Resources joined other preservation experts and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in a
weekend-long design charrette on the future of Belmead, and secured anonymous funds for
the emergency stabilization of St. Francis. While much work remains, the rich layered history
of Belmead provides a strong foundation from which to renew this site.
THE CHOICEST LAND
Preserving Past, Present and Future: Belmead Land Conservation
The coming generations will have entailed upon it a scarcity of
wood & timber only to be remedied by long years of careful &
laborious cultivation and preservation of the forest itself.
- Philip St. George Cocke
Timber
School Era Timber Production
“Here the student has the
opportunity to learn the processes
by which the tree, standing in the
woods, is felled, sawn, stacked, kiln
dried or seasoned.”
Agricultural School Prospectus, pre-WWI
Ja
mes
Rive
r
Agriculture
Belmead
St. Francis
Crop Rotation Chart and Map, Philip St. George Cocke
“Belmead contains...340 acres of
the choicest James River flatland.”
Philip St. George Cocke, 1854
Deep Creek
Water and Stone
1913 Deep Creek Dam
Conservation Easement Boundary
“Much of the wheat and corn
raised on the farm is ground in the
mill. The machinery is modern...
operated by both steam and water
power.”
Agricultural School Prospectus, pre-WWI
Though the modern history of Belmead has been one of decline and disuse, recent activities have sought to renew its history. Most
prominently, in December of 2006 the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament placed a conservation easement on 1,099 acres of the 2,265
acre Belmead property. The easement, though it does not directly protect the historic, built fabric of the site, does protect 465 acres
devoted to crop and food production, 589 acres of managed forests and over 600 acres of sensitive wetlands and riparian corridors.
Under the terms of the conservation easement these areas are protected from subdivision and require specific management and care
through the creation of Stewardship Plans. These plans, designed to protect the land from resource depletion, would have been
lauded by Philip St. George Cocke, who had meticulously managed his plantation and lamented in 1854 that “the present generation
will scarcely repair the waste & injury inflicted upon the soil by previous bad management and tillage.”
Resource management is as much a part of the history of Belmead as the buildings. Not only as the context for the placement of the
Belmead mansion, or for landscape preservation, but as part of the vital story of production, extraction and self-sufficiency that
permeates the uses of this site from the plantation era, through the school era, and into more recent times. In many ways, the
conservation easement is the bridge between past and future in this property. It protects, according to the Sisters, “a story traced
through time.” Today, a new story is emerging.