{"nrhp_refnum":"92001274","name":"Douglass High School","other_names":["Douglass Community School","DHR File No. 253-70"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"408 E. Market St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Leesburg","county":"Loudoun County","state":"VA","lat":39.109027962000056,"lon":-77.55504280690424,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-09-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Education"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story brick Colonial Revival school building at 408 East Market Street, Leesburg, Loudoun County, Virginia, built in 1941 on about 9.9 acres, with later additions and a detached shop building.","why_significant":"It was Loudoun County's first and only black high school, operating from 1941 until desegregation in 1968. Local black citizens raised money, bought the land and gave it to the school board after years of pressure for a safe, accredited high school. The nomination presents it as a local symbol of the black struggle for equal educational rights.","narrative":"Douglass High School is a one-story, dark red brick school at 408 East Market Street in Leesburg, built in 1941 in an institutional Colonial Revival style. It has a standing-seam metal gable roof, white six-over-six windows and a central hall that doubles as gymnasium and stage, flanked by two classroom wings. Classrooms were added in 1954 and a gymnasium in 1960, and a detached vocational shop stands to the west. The school was Loudoun County's first and only black high school, serving from 1941 until desegregation in 1968. Before it opened, black students were taught on the second floor of an unsafe frame building with a thin curriculum and no accreditation. Parent-teacher groups formed the County-Wide League, held fundraisers, bought the land and sold it to the school board for $1. They later furnished the building as well. It was named for Frederick Douglass. Today it houses a community school and community center on landscaped grounds.","period_of_significance":"1941-1942","architect_builder":"Taylor Manufacturing Company, Farmville, Virginia","architectural_style":"Late 19th & 20th Century Revival: Colonial Revival","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Still in educational and community use: the Douglass Community School and Douglass Community Center share the buildings, and the grounds are a landscaped park.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.749373-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/57/6816/41681657/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/92001274.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92001274/1568f716e2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92001274/1568f716e2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Acroterion","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Douglass_HS_Leesburg_VA1.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Acroterion</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Douglass_HS_Leesburg_VA1.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681657","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglass_High_School_(Leesburg,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5302171"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/loudoun-county/douglass-high-school-92001274/"}