Roanoke City Public Schools is applying for a state historic marker to tell the story of Lucy Addison, a pioneering educator who started Roanoke’s first Black high school.
Addison was born in 1861 to enslaved parents in Fauquier County. She received her education degree in Philadelphia and taught in Loudoun County before moving in 1887 to Roanoke, where she was interim principal at the city’s First Ward Colored School before returning to teaching, according to Encyclopedia Virginia.
In 1917, she became principal of Roanoke’s Harrison School, which became the largest school in the state to be led by a woman. At the time, there was not a Black high school in Roanoke. So Addison spearheaded efforts to make a high school education accessible for Black students in the city, said Nelson Harris, a Roanoke historian and former mayor.
In 1928, a newly constructed high school was named in her honor, though she had retired by then. Lucy Addison High School was the city’s first Black high school.
Along with her other “firsts,” Addison became the first resident of the city with her name on a public building.
After desegregation, RCPS housed its central office at Lucy Addison High School. Lucy Addison Middle School was later constructed and still serves students today.
Addison died in 1937 in Washington, D.C., after suffering from chronic nephritis, according to Encyclopedia Virginia.
In July, the school district will open the Booker T. Washington Community Empowerment and Education Center in the old RCPS Central Office, which school division spokesperson Claire Mitzel said will serve as a “hub” for the community. This is where the proposed marker would be located.
“It is important and fitting to preserve our city’s history,” said Mitzel, who spoke about the marker application at the city council’s Tuesday meeting. The council unanimously approved the application.
The process to get a highway marker through the Department of Historic Resources is competitive, Mitzel said.
Harris, who helped review this application, has had success with his applications in the past. He’s had 10 approved by the DHR’s program, the most recent a marker telling the story of Edward Dudley, a legal giant in Roanoke.
“Lucy Addison is obviously, in the history of Roanoke, the preeminent Black educator,” Harris said. “Kudos to the school system for wanting to elevate and honor that.”
Harris said it normally takes the DHR four to six months to go through the application process until final approval.
