There are a lot of memories about the old Enon Elementary School.
Evelyn “Emmie” Billings has
“I started in 1962,” Billings said. “Things were different then. Everything was handwritten, no cell phones, no computers, no SOLs and no teachers’ aides.”
School size was also different compared to today. During the 1960s, there were two additions to the school and 14 teachers made up the faculty. The first addition in 1961 added six new classrooms to the lower hall. In 1969, a “hall of glass” was added, and the kindergarten pod was completed. The school had become a large, sprawling building so an intercom system had to be added.
“When I started teaching there were just a few rooms,” Billings said. “Then rooms kept being added, and additions, until now there [wasn’t] any room to add any more on. Now we have the new building.”
One memory involved a principal.
“The first principal I knew was Martha T. Bird,” Billings said. “A funny thing, she always wore bangle bracelets that jingled when she walked. She was a good person, but very strict and rigid. When she was walking the kids would hear those bracelets jingling, and they would straighten up quickly!”
Billings just couldn’t seem to step away after retiring.
“I substituted for 17 years after retiring,” she said laughing. “I love kids and just wanted to be around them. I really loved reading to them.”
The first school in Enon was a one-room building. It was located behind the present Enon Baptist Church. One teacher taught all six grade levels. It closed in 1926, and the students of Enon attended school in Chester.
At the request of a Community League, which had been formed to address the need for a new school building, Chesterfield County purchased 11.5 acres of land and construction began on a new school.
In 1938, Enon Elementary School was established. A small building housed four classrooms, two bathrooms, an office
A 1955 addition created six more classrooms. A new office, lunchroom
2 Comments
She was my sons kindergarten teacher. She’s an absolutely beautiful person. She was his Mrs. Bil-a-lings as he called her with his southern accent. She got me started into volunteering at the Matoaca schools, which I continued for 13 years.
I taught Special Education in one of the 1938 classrooms in the ’90s. The architecture, building materials, and quality
of the 1930s was superior to today’s new schools. I would’ve love to have had some of the shelves and 10 foot glass bookshelves. Wonder what happened to them? I always thought that 1938, 4 room, oldest section of Enon Elementary should’ve been preserved as an historical education museum. But, also, and sadly, time, and progress, marches on.