Angelica Ramos
Contributing Writer
MONTGOMERY COUNTY- Dr. Bernard F. Bragen, Jr., Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent, recently addressed the Montgomery County School Board about the preservation of Friends Elementary School.
During the superintendent’s report portion of the Montgomery County School Board meeting on Dec. 3, 2024, Bragen told the board he’s been talking with Christiansburg Institute about what can be done to preserve Friends Elementary school. The school was formerly a primary school for Montgomery County’s people of color during segregation. It used to overlook the original Christiansburg Institute land and farm when students were gracing its halls. Friends Elementary School sits on the corner of Franklin Street next to Christiansburg High School.
The building has been used for many purposes since the integration of schools but is currently most recognizable for the sign on the side that says “MCPS Corps of Cadets” as it was once the Montgomery County Public Schools Corps of Cadets building.
There are still many Montgomery County residents who were students at Friends Elementary and have fond memories of going to school there, as integration of school began in the late 1950’s and 1960’s throughout America. This means that one’s grandfather, uncle, parent and even neighbor may have gone to school there at some point, making the building important to Christiansburg’s history as well as Montgomery County’s history.
“I want to update the school board on the Friends Elementary Preservation Initiative,” Bragen said during his report, “I had some conversations with the Christiansburg Institute, and with our conversations there, there’s definitely a push, as I heard from the School Board, the goal is to preserve that building, Friends Elementary School on North Franklin Street, out in front of Christiansburg High School.
“One of the things we identified was part of the renovation project for Christiansburg High School, it included a renovation of the windows there; the original windows are kind of drafty and not as airtight as we’d like them to be,” he continued. “So, during that conversation, I reached out to some people in the preservation spaces and they’re going to give us the exact idea and drawings of what those original windows may have looked like. We’re going to maintain that integrity, while still updating them as part of that process of preserving that building for future use that may incorporate portions of it as a memorial museum and things like that. So, I’m excited that somebody mentioned that because if not, we would have went ahead without having that sensitivity to keeping the architectural integrity of the original structure. We have a lot of history here and we want to preserve as much as we can.”