History
The Shenandoah County Community Center is a relatively new resource for the community, located in a historic building steeped with tradition. We started in 2023 as a nonprofit and soon identified the former Triplett High and Graded School in Mt. Jackson as an ideal location to bring the dream to life. A combination of grants, donations and business sponsorship led to restoring the historic building, turning it into a modern community center, with facilities available to everyone!
The original building, no longer standing.
Modern Building, Historic Touches
Today, thanks to careful restoration, remnants of the center’s schoolhouse are visible in every room and hallway. Former classrooms contain restored original slate blackboards, and visitors may notice vintage doorknobs and replica 1950s-era curtains framing the stage in the gymnasium. Ceiling tile was installed by hand in the gym, and acoustic paneling was added to create balance so the space can be used both for sports and performances.
The generations of students who passed through these doors can now return with their own children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to socialize and enjoy a wide variety of activities and resources.
A 1934 Triplett High School sports team.
Triplett Junior High students.
Triplett High School 1952 Glee Club.
The school after the 1925 fire.
About the School Building
The following is excerpted from the National Register of Historic Places (property ID: 100011606) application.
In May 1917 local businessman Dr. Joseph I. Triplett (1845-1930) donated land at the south end of town and $25,000 for the construction of a new school which was to be named Triplett High and Vocational School in honor of the gift…
Newspaper accounts suggest construction began by the end of 1917 and was completed in 1920. The school served the community for five years until a fire thought to have started in an overheated corn germinator in the school’s “agricultural laboratory” burned the building down on February 14, 1925. In response the community resolved to build a “better and a bigger” replacement.
The new Triplett High and Vocational School, incorporating undamaged walls from the 1920 building, was ready for occupancy in the fall of 1925. “In no other way,” wrote the Shenandoah Herald in its October 9, 1925, issue, “is the civic spirit of Mt. Jackson as well exemplified as in its splendid Triplett High and Vocational School. This modern building stands as a monument not only to the progressiveness of the community but it is a testimonial to the community’s courage in rising superior to a disaster which would have blighted the growth of many towns.”6
In September 1938 the Northern Virginia Daily wrote that Triplett High and Vocational School opened with a record enrollment of 450 students. “Two buses daily carry students from nearby schools, which have been closed, to Mt. Jackson,” the paper noted, pointing to consolidation as the cause of the enrollment surge.
By the mid-1950s overcrowding was once again mooted as an issue. In October 1954 a total of 813 students occupied the building’s eighteen classrooms. Consequently, in the fall of 1959 the high school students were transferred to Stonewall Jackson High School between Mount Jackson and New Market. The Triplett building was repurposed as Triplett Elementary School and was repurposed again, as Triplett Middle School, in the mid-1980s. School use ceased in 1993 and in 1994 the county board of supervisors granted the “Triplett Middle School property” to the Mount Jackson Fire Department, with the provision that the county parks and recreation department be allowed to use the gymnasium. The 1925 section was torn down and a fire house garage built in its place.
The fire department moved to a new location in the early 2000s, the building was later sold and by 2023 construction was underway to make improvements so the building can serve as a community center for the residents of Shenandoah County.
