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Flat Gap by Connie Bolling

Flat Gap school named national landmark

By: JODI DEAL / Staff Writer

Posted: The Coalfield Progress

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Just three months after being named to a state list of historic buildings, the Flat Gap Community Center in Pound has been approved for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Wise County received a letter that notified local authority of the good news in late March.

Reached by telephone Friday, Kaye Shortt, a retired teacher who serves as director of the community group that oversees the old school building, said she hopes the designation will help her win grant funds to improve the building.

Right now, plans are in place to do some general painting and cleanup work on the school, built in 1937, with recreation funds from the county. However, Shortt says more work is needed on the windows of the center, which is located about 10 miles outside of Pound.

The next few months will be a busy time at the school, which is a hot spot for family reunions. According to Shortt, about 3,000 people visit the facility each summer, mostly for family gatherings. Shortt noted that she is working with county Director of Marketing and Community Development Bill Smith on eventually setting concerts and other events there. Shortt says she also hopes to get signs indicating the building’s state and national landmark statuses.

LONG, RICH HISTORY

According to historical data compiled for the landmark status applications, the school served as a high school until 1945, when those students were transferred to Pound High School. It continued to be used as an elementary school, serving grades 1-7 until 1961. It was used as a kindergarten until the 1970s, when it was closed for good as a school, and soon adapted to a community center.

William T. “Chid” Wright, son of well-known local lawman “Devil” John Wright, led the Flat Gap school’s men’s basketball team to an astounding record of 100 consecutive wins on the outdoor dirt court, and taking home a state championship in 1937, the documents note. According to the official documents detailing its history, the building played host to a variety of activities in its early days, from vacation Bible school lessons to farmer’s meetings, free movies, pie suppers, cake walks and plenty of sporting events.

In the years since, it has regularly been rented for reunions, weddings, parties, picnics, political rallies and other events. All proceeds from rentals of the old school go to an account that helps keep the bills paid and funds occasional improvements. To inquire about using the Flat Gap Community Center, call Kaye Shortt at 796-4267.

Directions from Pound High School to Flat Gap School

Google Maps Flat Gap School, Pound, VA 24279

Driving directions to Flat Gap School, Pound, VA 24279 9.6 mi

1. Head southeast on Wildcat Dr toward VA-83 E 0.1 mi

2. Turn right at VA-83 W 0.5 mi

3. Turn right at Main St 0.7 mi

4. Take the 1st left onto S Fork Rd/State Route 671 4.2 mi

5. Slight left to stay on S Fork Rd/State Route 671 0.3 mi

6. Slight right at N Fork Rd/State Route 671 3.6 mi

7. Turn left at Community Center Rd 292 ft

8. Slight left

Destination will be on the right 495 ft

 To View the map click this link Flat Gap School, Pound, VA 24279

Flat Gap - Area Changed by Industry

The following excerpt written by Connie Bolling.

He is a special writer for The Coalfield Progress.

Published November 10, 2009

..Many of the substantial families, the Shorts, Sturgill’s, Churches, Branson’s, Hamptons, and Boggs, of the Gilley community have been routed by the man‑made Pound Lake. I was very close to and had much love and respect for these people when I was once a teacher there…In the early twentieth century, the Flat Gap community was populated by families with large numbers of children. The Bollings were by far most numerous. My Uncle William and my father, Boyd Bolling, were great storytellers. Then thought of as merely "tales," this material is now considered folklore and a valuable remnant of this altered geographic area. Now all these households have dispersed to almost every state in the Union. Boyd Bolling's family of sixteen has moved elsewhere, except for grandson, Kenneth.

My memory shifts back seventy-five years to the day when sixty or seventy students were enrolled in the large, one room Flat Gap School. I was a student there from 1914 to 1919. As a child, this one room seemed enormous, and the ten-penny nails hammered in the wall to hang our coats on were almost beyond my reach. The teacher’s desk sat on a three-foot high stage in the back end of the building. Lining the walls of the stage were black boards made of hardwood painted jet black. In the center, steps led up to the stage where two recitation benches sat, one on the right and one on the left in front of the teacher desk…

Near the front door, on a table, sat two ten quart water pails and one dipper. It was such great joy for my pal, Conard Bolling, to go up to Uncle William Bollings spring and refill these pails. Individual cups or drinking glasses were brought from home. A black, pot‑bellied stove occupied a position in the center aisle with two coal hods nearby. The poker and ketch were underneath the stove.

To the right and left of the center aisle were rows of double seats, with the small seats beginning in front for the small children and becoming larger all the way to the rear where the seventh grade sat.

Lunch pails, school supplies, and personal effects were stuffed under each seat. A world globe graced the stage, and the standard pictures of Washington and Lincoln hung far above everyone's head, affixed, in the old-fashioned way, to the ceiling molding. Colorful maps were pinned to the wall, and when possible, flowers adorned the teacher's desk. All sorts of odors emanated from this wonderful room, filled as it was with such splendid sensory delights.

The school was in many ways like our modern day community centers. In it were held pie suppers, box suppers, cakewalks, debates, school plays, and community meetings. The play yard was the scene of such games as "Straight Town”, "Cat Ball," "Base," "Fox and Dog," and "Whoopie Hide." We also had one or two level marble grounds where we could play "Big Nickel" and "A Ping”. Sometimes we played "keeps" and routinely fights erupted. Then the teacher would "pour the pine limb to our hides."

My fifth grade teacher was Miss Ada Mullins. She would whip at the drop of the hat. We all said that she was "lller than a hornet”, but students, and parents held her in the highest esteem. She also saw that we prepared our lessons and recited well. If we failed to do so, we were kept in after school and made to complete our homework. Parents and teachers taught clear and specific guidelines about right and wrong, holding the children responsible for their own behavior.

…In 1918, this one room school was closed and a two-room elementary school building was built on a beautiful site of land owned by my father.