Northern Neck Now

Bluff Point Graded School #3, built in 1912, exemplifies the local adaptations that commonly occurred in rural Virginia when residents were forced to provide for the education of their children. Before the first Bluff Point school was built for white children in 1877, some children in the area were home-schooled by tutors or governesses. Families with money could send their children to private schools out of the area—an unaffordable option, however, for most families on the Northern Neck. The Bluff Point schools answered a clear need and drew white students from a surrounding six square miles in an area of the county bounded on three sides by water. The Bluff Point Graded School #3 is the only remaining two-room schoolhouse in this part of the Northern Neck. The Northumberland County school closed in 1932 but was reopened in 1937 as a community center, and the building is still maintained by the Bluff Point Community League.

Bluff Point Graded School #3