shore treasure

Historic onancock School Community & Cultural Center is a 14 acre oasis in the heart of Onancock, Virginia. The Onancock School property has been educating children on the Eastern Shore for over 150 years. The present building turned 100 years old in 2021. It is now in the midst of rehabilitation for its re-use as a community and cultural center offering working studio space for artists, and entrepreneurs, gathering spaces for social, business and civic use for all residents and visitors to Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Check your scrapbooks!  Email your photos to info@historiconancockschool.org  and we may add them to this page!

The Past and Future of the Onancock School Property

1859 – Atlantic Female Institution, a college for young women, is established on what is now the Onancock School property by a Baptist minister and operates until 1868. Students from as far away as the western side of the Bay attend.

1877 - Onancock Academy was chartered. Frank Brent, graduate of U.VA was brought here to be the principal for the school. Subjects taught were history, English, Latin, Greek, German, French, science, instrumental and vocal music and book keeping. Physical activity included rowing and skating.

1893 – The Margaret Academy, chartered in 1786 and founded in Bobtown in 1807, moves to the College Avenue site. It merges with a private school, Onancock Academy, and operates until 1902.

1918 – The townspeople of Onancock pay $12,000 to acquire land from the Margaret Academy trustees as a site for a new public school for Onancock.

1919 – The Town of Onancock floats a $35,000 bond issue for building the new school.

1921 – While children study in the old Margaret Academy buildings, the main building of the present Onancock School is erected. A marble corner stone with a copy of the Eastern Shore News was placed during construction of the now existing Historic Onancock School.

1922 – On March 5,1922 Onancock High School was dedicated. The town showed up for the celebration.

1927-28 – When high schools in Cashville and Onley close, their students come to Onancock. To accommodate them, wings are added to the southwest and northwest corners of the building. From the original Margaret Academy building in Bobtown, Dr. J. W. Robertson brings a brick, which is installed in the west wall of the new school.

1984 – The last class graduates from Onancock High School and the building and grounds begin to be used by the Accomack County School Board for multiple educational uses.

2006, September – Accomack County returns the building to the Town of Onancock.

2006, December – Local citizens create Friends of Onancock School, whose mission is to preserve and revitalize the school property as public open space to benefit all residents of the Eastern Shore, both now and in the future.

2007, August – FOS entered into a 40 year lease with the Town of Onancock to use its best efforts to rehabilitate the property as a community center.

2022 – Historic Onancock School celebrates 100 years since the dedication of Onancock High School