The HEIGHTS of discovery

By Jeff Poole
Managing Editor

"While musing over the thought of selecting a name, this name "Prospect Heights" came into my mind. Considering the fact that the site is on a promontory and knowing that we are searching for a new and extended view, it is with this in mind that we are looking forward and expecting to gain new heights."

More than 50 years ago, those prophetic words were drafted by Evangeline Z. Mallory on her entry to name the new consolidated African American school in Orange.
Her granddaughter, Ruth Mallory Long, recently discovered the historic note among some family albums.
Long said it had been an oft-told story in her family about how her grandmother named Prospect Heights, but until she found the original note, it had been more legend than fact.
"We knew this, but we never saw anything to that effect," Long said. "Then, when I happened to find this, I thought, 'she was right! She did actually name Prospect Heights.'"
Prospect's first principal, W.T. Holmes, confirmed Long's assertion. He had been the head teacher at the Orange Graded School and said Mallory's entry was unanimously chosen among the final three names submitted. There was Prospect Heights, the Taylor School, named in honor of Gussie Taylor, then head of the county's African American schools, and a third name Holmes said he couldn't remember, but was never seriously in the running.
The three names were submitted to the school's Parent Teacher Association and Prospect Heights was chosen with, "overwhelming support," Holmes recalled.
The new Prospect Heights School opened in December 1956 and combined three upper elementary schools in the western part of the county, including the Gordonsville School, Orange Graded School and the Number 7 School near Barboursville.
Holmes requested the school board allow Prospect to open just before the Christmas break, so school administrators and staff would have the opportunity to address any issues during the student holiday.
Prospect Heights opened Dec. 17, 1956 with 346 students in grades 1-7 and remains today as the schools' central office-the Taylor Education and Administration Complex, named in part after Gussie Taylor.
The Dec. 20, 1956 Orange Review reports, "The building, which is of the most modern structure, was designed by Stainback and Scribner, architects, of Charlottesville. There are 12 classrooms, 10 of which are in use. Each room is designed with an overhead skylight to give natural lighting on blackboards and teachers' desks. There is also an auditorium, a library opening into the principal's office and a cafeteria, where on Monday, 144 lunches were served."
Meanwhile, Mallory and her husband J.B. Mallory were charter members of the school's PTA and integral in the early days of the new Prospect Heights School.
The Review reported brief biographical sketches on the Mallorys, and fellow PTA members Lillian Ashby, secretary of the new school, Lawrence Dade, treasurer, (a post he soon ceded to Delma Brown because of health concerns) and PTA President Thaddeus Johnson.
The Review reports J.B. Mallory as the PTA's chaplain, noting he "was trained in the schools of New York City and is a minister of wide and varied experiences, having pastored in New York, Richmond, Louisville, Memphis and Albany, GA. Mallory has been living in Orange County for the past 17 years and is pastor of the Calvary Seventh Day Adventist Church in Gordonsville.
"Mrs. Evangeline Z. Mallory is a native of Washington, attended the schools of that city and took courses from the Chicago School of Nursing and in child and infant care in New York City," the Review reported.
Long recalled her grandmother was born in Washington, DC in 1891 as one of seven children and moved to Orange with her husband in 1939 when he retired from the ministry. They chose to join the PTA because three of their grandchildren were in school at the time, she said.
Long remembered her visits to her grandparents' farm as a child.
"We were originally from New York City," she said, "so when we came here, it was interesting. They didn't have indoor plumbing. They had all these chickens and animals and a huge garden."
Long said a favorite memory of her grandmother was of her canning those garden vegetables and making strawberry ice cream the old-fashioned way after sending the grandchildren out to pick berries.
As much as Long enjoyed recalling warm memories of her grandmother, as an Orange County African American Historical Society board member, she acknowledges a broader context to her rewarding trip down memory lane.
"People don't realize what history they have," she said. "Look at what you have–photos, clippings, letters. I want to encourage folks to see what they have and save it so they can learn about their family, their history and their community."