From 1934-1936, Elsie Ripley Clapp served as administrator of the Arthurdale School. A student of progressive education reformer John Dewey, Clapp saw Arthurdale as a great opportunity to create a community school. Students learned through hands-on activities rather than theoretical learning and undertook projects related to their interests or to ones that could help the community. The students also learned about their Appalachian culture. Eleanor Roosevelt donated books, money, and supplies to the school and paid Elsie Clapp’s salary.
When the school opened in the fall of 1934, the school buildings had not yet been built. Determined to begin, Miss Clapp set about placing the students in various community buildings. The elementary school held classes in the Arthur Mansion, high school students learned in Center Hall, and the nursery school was located in a newly completed building near the Community Center.
In addition to the buildings not being completed, the books and supplies ordered by Elsie Clapp and her teachers had not arrived. The teachers improvised and put their progressive teaching plans to work.
Second grade students learned about construction by watching workers build the homes in Arthurdale and put their knowledge to practical use by building their own miniature homestead community, while fourth grade studied pioneer life in the old Fairfax cabin. High school students combined disciplines and created surveying equipment through their math, science, and shop classes and they eventually surveyed Route 92 for their final project.
Elsie Clapp helped design the school campus, which opened in the fall of 1935 and featured a high school, cafeteria, gymnasium/auditorium, elementary school, primary school, and nursery school. Educational advisers to the Arthurdale project included John Dewey; Lucy Sprague Mitchell of Bank Street College; Dean William Russell of Teachers College, Columbia University; Eleanor Roosevelt; Clarence Pickett; and W. Carson Ryan, a future editor of the journal Progressive Education.
Each year, from 1937-1944, Eleanor Roosevelt would visit Arthurdale to give out the diplomas to the graduating class. Additionally, in May 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt joined Eleanor for the graduation ceremony and, to this day, is the only sitting president to deliver a high school commencement speech.
From 1936 to 2000, four of the original Arthurdale school buildings were under the control of the Preston County Board of Education and used as a middle school and elementary school. They continued to use the Gymnasium until 2018 when it was mothballed. In 2000, the PCBOE transferred the high school, cafeteria, and elementary school buildings to Arthurdale Heritage. A Save America’s Treasures grant completed in 2006 provided for stabilization and mothballing of the buildings until complete restoration of the buildings can take place.
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