{"nrhp_refnum":"79003056","name":"Old Christiansburg Industrial Institute","other_names":["Hill School","Schaeffer Memorial"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"570 High St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Christiansburg","county":"Montgomery County","state":"VA","lat":37.13927439300005,"lon":-80.40562426199995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-04-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture","Religion","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-building complex on High Street in Christiansburg, Montgomery County, Virginia, made up of the Hill School (1885), the Schaeffer Memorial Baptist Church (1885) and the Primary Annex (1888), on a promontory above the town.","why_significant":"The complex is presented as a monument to the social, educational and religious history of the black community of southwestern Virginia. It grew from a Freedmen's Bureau school founded by Captain Charles S. Schaeffer and was supported by Quaker philanthropy. Its Tuskegee- and Hampton-style technical program, introduced under Booker T. Washington's supervision from 1895, helped produce community leaders.","narrative":"On a high promontory above Christiansburg, three buildings survive from the earliest years of the Christiansburg Industrial Institute: the Hill School and Schaeffer Memorial Baptist Church, both built in 1885, and the Primary Annex of 1888. The church is a brick Victorian Gothic design with a four-stage corner tower, stained-glass windows and its original pews and pulpit. The Hill School is a two-and-one-half-story brick building in the Italianate mode. The annex is a wood-frame octagon with Victorian stained glass. The institution began in 1866 as a Freedmen's Bureau school led by Captain Charles S. Schaeffer, who later became a Baptist minister. Quaker groups supported it, and in 1895 Booker T. Washington took over its supervision, introducing a technical curriculum. Older students moved to a larger farm campus in 1902, and the Hill School served as a preparatory school until 1953. It is now a community center, and the church remains in worship use.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Charles S. Schaeffer (amateur designer)","architectural_style":"Vernacular Victorian Gothic (church); Italianate with Queen Anne Revival window influence (Hill School)","criteria":[],"status_note":"The church still functions as a Baptist meeting house with its original fabric. The Hill School interior is radically altered, and the building is still used as a community center.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.973275-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/83/6819/41681983/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/79003056.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79003056/4da60a5e89-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79003056/4da60a5e89-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Skye Marthaler","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Christiansburg_Industrial_Institute_-_Primary_Annex.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Skye Marthaler</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Christiansburg_Industrial_Institute_-_Primary_Annex.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681983","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Christiansburg_Industrial_Institute","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14713007"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/montgomery-county/old-christiansburg-industrial-institute-79003056/"}