Stuart Robinson School was a

settlement school Settlement schools are social reform institutions established in rural Appalachia in the early 20th century with the purpose of educating mountain children and improving their isolated rural communities. Settlement schools have played an import ...

in Blackey,

Letcher County, Kentucky Letcher County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,548. Its county seat is Whitesburg. The county, founded in 1842, is named for Robert P. Letcher, Governor of Kentucky from 1840 t ...

, established in 1913 as a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

mission. It closed in 1957, after graduating its last class in 1956.

Establishment

Stuart Robinson School was established in 1913 by Rev. Dr. Edward O. Guerrant. A physician and evangelist, Guerrant was the founder of several schools and churches in

eastern Kentucky Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways * Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 * Eastern Air ...

. Guerrant is said to have been inspired to start a

mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

in Blackey after he encountered some boys swimming in the nearby river on a Sunday morning in 1910 and discovered that most of the boys had never heard of Sunday school, much less attended one. The school was named for Rev. Stuart Robinson, who had been a pastor of

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

Second Presbyterian Church. Robinson was known for both his leadership role among border state Presbyterians during and after the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

and his interest in mission work in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. The school had 140 students when it opened.

Campus and facilities

The school was located on a campus served by the Rockhouse Branch of the L&N Railroad and by

Kentucky Route 15 Kentucky Route 15 begins at a junction of US 119/Corridor F & Business KY 15 in Whitesburg, and terminates in Winchester at US 60. It is a major route, connecting the coalfields of the Cumberland Plateau with Lexington and other cities in the Bl ...

. It also maintained a large

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

to produce food for the school. School and farm buildings included dormitories and a dining hall, educational buildings, a library, a

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational i ...

nasium, houses for teachers, and a dairy barn, silo, and milk house with equipment for pasteurization and refrigeration. By its final years, the campus expanded from 16 to .

School program

Stuart Robinson School was coeducational and operated as a day and boarding school with twelve grades. Most students were enrolled in a work-study program, which the school called its "Work Scholarship plan", through which students could earn all or part of the cost of their education and board. Boys typically did farm and gardening work, installed fencing, fired the school's furnaces, worked at carpentry, or maintained plumbing and electrical wiring. Girls did cooking and housekeeping work in the school's kitchen, dining room and dormitories. The school fielded interscholastic teams in football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

. Extracurricular activities included a

glee club A glee club in the United States is a musical group or choir group, historically of male voices but also of female or mixed voices, which traditionally specializes in the singing of short songs by trios or quartets. In the late 19th century it w ...

, a

home economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...

club, and literary societies. Throughout its history, the school operated as a Presbyterian mission. In 1935 it was described as the Presbyterian church's largest school.

Closure

The school closed after Letcher County built public schools in the nearby community of

Letcher Letcher may refer to: Places * Letcher, South Dakota *Letcher County, Kentucky People *Chris Letcher, South African singer/songwriter * Cliff Letcher (born 1952), Australian professional tennis player *John Letcher, American lawyer and politicia ...

. It graduated its last class in 1956 and closed in 1957, after which time the Southern Presbyterian Church sold the property. The school property is now used as Calvary Campus, a Christian camp, education facility, and retreat center.

Alumni

A school fundraising pamphlet stated that more than half of Stuart Robinson's graduates went on to college, and that many later returned to mountain communities in eastern Kentucky "to teach school to their lesser-enlightened neighbors" and sometimes "organized Sunday Schools where they have never before existed." Notable alumni of the Stuart Robinson School include Juanita Kreps,

U.S. Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...

under President Jimmy Carter, and

Gurney Norman Gurney Norman (born 1937) is an American writer, documentarian, and professor. Biography Gurney Norman was born in Grundy, Virginia, in 1937. He grew up in the southern Appalachian Mountains and was raised alternately by his maternal grandparen ...

, author and university professor whose novel '' Divine Right's Trip'' was published in serial form in the ''

Whole Earth Catalog The ''Whole Earth Catalog'' (WEC) was an American counterculture magazine and product catalog published by Stewart Brand several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The magazine featured essays and articl ...

''.

References

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External links

The Stuart Robinson School
YouTube video Education in Letcher County, Kentucky Settlement schools Educational institutions established in 1913 Educational institutions disestablished in 1957 1913 establishments in Kentucky Defunct schools in Kentucky 1957 disestablishments in Kentucky