Special Collections, UVA Library

For years African American children attended separate schools, and improvements in facilities, teaching resources and course offerings lagged behind those funded for white children. Though full high school instruction was not available to them, beginning in the 1890s black students from Albemarle and surrounding counties could continue their education beyond grade school at the Albemarle Training School on Hydraulic Road. Most of the complex has since been demolished. ATS grew out of the Union Ridge Graded School and at first offered practical training along the lines advocated by Booker T. Washington, with courses in Vocational Agriculture, Domestic Science and Industrial Education. In later years a full four-year high school course was added. Mary Carr Greer served as principal from 1930 to 1950 following fifteen years as the Domestic Science teacher. As a child she had attended Union Ridge, and had gone on to study at Virginia State College, Fisk and Cornell. Greer Elementary School is named for her. In 1951, when black high school students were transferred to the joint city-county Burley High School, Albemarle Training School became an elementary school and eventually was closed in 1959.