HISTORY

The first schoolhouse on the site was known as the Pohick School #8, and was built around 1900 on land donated by civil war veteran, Barney Deavers (who is buried within view of the schoolhouse at the adjacent Sydenstricker Methodist Cemetery).  It replaced another schoolhouse located a mile away (the Barkers School), which was built around 1874.

The original schoolhouse on the site burned in July 1928.  A new, larger school was constructed in only 4 months, and opened to students in November 1928.  The school became known as the Sydenstricker School (for its proximity to the neighboring Sydenstricker Church).

On November 23, 1928 the Fairfax Herald reported:
The new school is completed and has been turned over to the school board.  It will be opened this week, and contains new desks and other equipment.  It is a model one-room schoolhouse.

The belfry still contains the original school-bell.  The bell was purchased in the 1920s from a Sears store in Alexandria, and survived the fire of 1928 that claimed the original building.

In 1934 the school was closed, and the children were sent to the Burke School.  The community petitioned to re-open the schoolhouse, and in September 1937 the school was re-opened to the first four grades.  The schoolhouse closed for good in June 1939. 

Despite being closed, the schoolhouse continued to be used regularly for community events, wedding receptions and meetings.  In August 1943 the building became home to the Red Cross “Sydenstricker Surgical Dressing Unit”, for the purpose of making bandages for the war.  By May 1944 the Fairfax Herald reported that the unit had completed their 10,000th surgical dressing.

In 1954 the Upper Pohick Community League (originally the Sydenstricker School & Community League, which was the "PTA" of the schoolhouse) purchased the building from the school district for $550 to use as a community center.  For many years it was the center of social activities in our area.  During the 1950s the League sponsored a Boy and Girl Scout troop, as well as a “Litter Buggy” which collected trash from local roads.  It was a thriving, active group that influenced the development of local roads, bridges and sub-divisions in a time when our area was very rural.  The UPCL still owns and maintains the schoolhouse, and is the oldest continually operating community association in Springfield, and among the oldest in Fairfax County.

The schoolhouse is listed in the Fairfax Inventory of Historic Sites, The Virginia Landmark Register, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

Minerva Young Hawkins at the schoolhouse, approximately 1929.

A wedding reception at the schoolhouse, 1954.

A Sunday School group in front of the schoolhouse, 1958.