Roadside Marker #43

Ruffner Public School Number 1
July 20, 1872
(On Center Street Near Peabody Street)

Named for Wm. H. Ruffner, Virginia's first Superintendent of Public Instruction, and opened as a public school on this date. Before free public schools were established by the Virginia Constitution of 1869, a one room free school was in operation with voluntary gifts.
Erected 1965


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