COAL CAMP SCHOOL

In the early 1900’s you would think that most people were educated in rural (country) or small town schools. However if you were born and lived in the rich coalfields of West Virginia, you would have attended a one or two room school.

The building was orginally constructed as a two room school, but as enrollment declined it became a one room school. The school was built in 1925 up a hollow called Berry Branch in Helen, West Virginia. It served black children that lived in the coal camp. In the coal camp during this time period there were two school buildings one for the white children and one for the black children. The size of the buildings was determined by population. The school buildings were owned by the coal company and the schools were run by the board of education. Only residents of the coal camp were allowed to attend the schools that were owned by the coal company.