Out of the Archives is a weekly blog highlighting items in the collections of the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives.
Commencement Program, 1887
Fairfax Hall School Records, 480 WFCHS THL
This week Out of the Archives celebrates all of our graduates! This commencement program from 1887 recognized the achievements of five young ladies graduating from Fairfax Hall school in Winchester.
The Rev. Silas Billings and his daughters, Mary E. and Cornelia F. Billings established Fairfax Hall, a school for girls, in Winchester in 1869. The school occupied the premises of the former Valley Female Institute (112 S. Cameron St.) until 1902 when it was moved to the Winchester Inn (109 S. Stewart St.).
According to a catalog for the school published in 1871, its location in Winchester offered all the advantages of “health, good order, and refined society.”
The school offered courses in mathematics, English, and geography, as well as lessons in music and art. The students could demonstrate their literary skills though the Fairfax Review, a monthly publication. The school attracted students from throughout Virginia and West Virginia, as well as from local families. It closed around 1904.