University of Virginia Library

Private Schools.

THE ASSERTION that no county of the State surpasses
Albemarle in educational opportunities is safely made.
The necessity for good private schools was recognized
by advanced and public-spirited men in the early days of the
century. But the necessity for them was no greater then
than now, when, in a larger sense than ever before, knowledge
is power. With opportunities for correct training at every
turn, parents and guardians can have no excuse for sending
young men and young women into the world inadequately
fitted for the duties which will be trying enough
under the most fortunate conditions. An uneducated man
may be strong and useful, but the chances are against his
achieving as much as it would be his lot to accomplish with
the advantages of thorough training.

There have always been good private schools in Charlottesville.
To speak only of matters easily within the memory of
young men, Major Horace Jones conducted in this place an
admirable high school for boys, at which many of our younger
citizens received their early training. After Major Jones left
Charlottesville there was what is usually described as a good
opening for a private school of high grade. Whether it was
this fact that led the Rev. Edgar Woods to establish the
school at Pantops the writer cannot say; it was probably one
of those fortunate cases in which the need and the supply
meet.

It was Wirt's opinion that Jefferson's intellectual activities
were tinged with a sublime cast because of his exalted abode
and the magnificence of the panoramic view that was constantly
before him. It may, indeed, be more than a passing
fancy; if so, the elevated position of Pantops (from which
the place derives its name) is worthy of attention. In one
sense it has always claimed attention. The eminence
which the school crowns is just across the Rivanna river
from Monticello. The view from Monticello has been the
subject of the highest and most graceful eulogies; and yet in
no particular does it surpass that always under the eye of the
Pantopian. No section of Virginia can present a better record
in the matter of equable climate and healthful surroundings.
And Pantops is seated so high and dry in the midst of an enchanting
landscape that no thought of malaria ever intrudes.
All the inestimable advantages of perfect natural drainage
and of pure mountain air meet here in a manner unsurpassed.
As to climate, the location is indeed practically perfect. Lifted
above the malarial districts of the tidewater country, it is at
the same time sheltered by the Blue Ridge toward the North
and West, and so escapes the rigors which make the winters
of the Valley of Virginia longer and more trying. The objection
sometimes urged against the location of schools for boys
in town cannot apply here, for Pantops is two miles and a hal
from the city.

Some years ago Prof. John R. Sampson succeeded Mr.

Woods in the management of the school. He had already
distinguished himself in his deliberately chosen profession of
teaching. Having accomplished thorough courses in the best
schools and colleges in America, he went to Europe and
spent four years in study at leading universities in Germany
and France. While yet in Europe he was chosen professor
of Latin and French in Davidson College, North Carolina.
There he labored eight years, achieving a career of singular
honor and usefulness. Learning that the school at Pantops
would soon be discontinued and unwilling that the enviable
reputation it had achieved should go for naught, he conceived
the plan of purchasing the ample tract and making the school
permanent. Resigning his professorship he returned to his
native State, and went energetically to work to remodel the
old building and put up new and substantial additions. He
is now the sole principal of Pantops, and under his wise management
the school has deserved success, and is being abundantly
rewarded. In the eleven years of its existence this
academy has received students from twenty States and one
Territory of the Union, and from Canada, Brazil, Mexico,
Japan and Siam.

It is safe to say that no school in Virginia surpasses Pantops
in the matter of equipment, and that no teacher brings
to his profession more genuine enthusiasm than Prof. Sampson.
Living near the University he gets the best of its graduates
for his assistants, and the high rank taken at the University
and also in the colleges by those students prepared at
Pantops, attests the thoroughness of the instruction and the
high standard maintained.

The school building is heated throughout with steam, and
the plan is such that every room has sunshine during the day
Special attention has been given to light and ventilation.
The institutions of the school are a Y. M. C. A., a reading-room,
a well-equipped gymnasium, a base-ball club, a foot-ball
association, and the "Pantops World," a paper edited by the
boys. There is each year, in November, an athletic field-day.

There can be no surer proof of the excellency of a school

than the loyalty and devotion of its pupils. Pantops has been
in large measures built up by the recommendations of its
"old boys" and their friends. And after reaching manhood,
memory but intensifies the warmth with which they speak of
the kindness received in the home there, and every year but
adds to the pride with which they bear the name of "Pantopian."

For some years Prof. Brock, now a member of the faculty
of Hampden-Sidney College, conducted a very successful
school at the Midway building. When he accepted a professorship
in the college just named he was succeeded by Mr. B.
Boaz, who had been his assistant. Mr. Boaz is an alumnus of
the University of Virginia, where he received the master's degree.
His success has been of the decided order. The school
relies chiefly on home patronage, as no provision is made for
boarders.

Dr. J. M. Page, who has just returned from Leipsic with
his Ph. D., and his brother, Thomas Walker Page, have
opened a select private school for boys near Keswick. It is
their plan to limit the number of pupils to fifteen, to give
their personal attention to each, and, in a word, to afford an
ideal home school. These gentlemen are in every respect
well qualified to accomplish their undertaking.

There are many primary schools for small children throughout
the county of which it is not necessary to speak.

There is a decided sentiment in all refined communities in
favor of the thorough education of the girls, and in this city
and neighborhood there has never been a disposition to evade
this beneficent social exaction. For this reason the female
institutes of Charlottesville have always been generously
patronized.

To notice the oldest first, for there exists no other reason
for precedence, the Piedmont Institute has had an active career
of thirty-five years, a fact which, taken alone, sufficiently attests
the great excellence of the school. The Rev. R. K. Meade
and Mrs. Meade live in a handsome residence on Market

street, and there is the seat of the school of which they are
the principals. The grounds are extensive and handsome,
and well suited to the purposes of a large school. The principals
are assisted by competent teachers, and the various
courses of the school are conducted with so much ability and
integrity that the pupil is hopelessly dull who does not derive
the most positive benefits.

Another inevitable test of the merit of a school is the
degree of popularity it attains. The Piedmont, proved by this
standard, measures well up to the best schools in Virginia.
Almost every year has witnessed an increase in the number
of students until now the attendance is very large. It is a
pleasure to commend a school so eminently deserving of
praise and patronage.

The Albemarle Female Institute is situated picturesquely
on the suburbs of Charlottesville, and is well known far and
wide as an excellent school for young ladies. The institute is
one of the handsomest buildings for a young ladies school in
Virginia, faces a splendid landscape of valley and hill, with a
great range of mountains in the distance. It looks out upon
historic ground and the associations are all elevating. Prof.
Dickinson, who has charge of the school, has won and deserves
much credit for the ability with which he has conducted
this academy for young ladies. Among his letters from former
patrons are to be found written testimony to the success
of which mention is made above, for the praises of the school
are sounded without stint.

Prof. Dickinson is assisted by the most competent teachers,
while the boarding department, over which Mrs. Dickinson
presides, is conducted on the Virginia plan of abundance,
well prepared. Sickness is of rare occurrence, indeed; but
whenever a pupil falls ill the care bestowed on the patient is
as unremitting as it is kindly.

The graduates of these schools should be in the widest
sense "sweet girl graduates," they are afforded every opportunity
and incentive to become accomplished and attractive,

and if they do not, their failure is due to their own indifference
and neglect.

It is a matter of congratulation that these schools propose
and maintain honest and inflexible standards of scholarship
and deportment, and are not, as too many female colleges are,
merely the resort of young ladies seeking to "finish," but not
to accomplish their education. The young lady who is graduated
from these schools or receives their highest honor, has
not merely spent a certain period under instruction, but has
accomplished all that the principals avouch that she has
achieved.