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A wall concealed behind brick for decades has reemerged as a powerful link to the segregated schoolhouse that once served Black children across the Vienna area.
The original 1939 wall was uncovered during renovations and an expansion at Louise Archer Elementary School. Architects revised their plans to preserve it as the centerpiece of the school’s new lobby.
Former classmates Alees Coates-Richardson, 92, and Gloria Carter, 91, returned to see the restored structure. Both attended the school in the 1940s and were taught by Louise Reeves Archer, the educator for whom the school is now named.
“It’s really a great opportunity to come back where we first started,” Carter said.
The school opened as the Vienna Colored School during segregation. Its original building had just three classrooms, with no cafeteria, gym or indoor restrooms.
“We’d go out in the yard and do exercise,” Coates-Richardson recalled. Carter remembered playing dodgeball outside. Students also had to leave the building to use the toilet.
Archer and other community members had pressed the Fairfax County School Board for money to construct the schoolhouse. In addition to serving as principal, Archer was one of its three teachers, teaching fifth, sixth and seventh grades.
Coates-Richardson and Carter were among the first children to attend the building after it opened in 1939. They remembered Archer as a devoted educator who treated her pupils as her own children.
“She was a sweet, sweet lady. She was like a mother,” Coates-Richardson said.
Archer commuted from Washington, D.C., and regularly picked up students in her Buick to make sure they reached school. Carter recalled that Archer packed in as many children as possible—and sometimes even carried two or three boys in the trunk.
The School Board approved an expansion during the baby boom after World War II, adding two classrooms, indoor plumbing and central heating. Archer never saw those improvements. She died in 1948 while visiting relatives in North Carolina.
The community soon asked the School Board to rename the Vienna Colored School in honor of its longtime principal, and the board approved the request.
The school was integrated in 1965 after years of legal fights over desegregation in Virginia. Today’s building includes facilities the original students did not have, including a cafeteria, gym, restrooms and drinking fountains.
Its renovated lobby now makes that history visible. Beside the preserved wall, a mural portrays Archer with the schoolhouse and the Buick she used to transport students. Display cases near the main office hold additional memorabilia, including a 1946 class photograph featuring Archer, Carter and Coates-Richardson.
“We have come a long way,” the two former classmates agreed.
“Just to see this is amazing,” Coates-Richardson said. “It’s a pleasure to be here to make history again.”
Carter died on July 23, 2025, at age 91. Coates-Richardson died on November 9, 2025, at age 92. Their memories now form part of the history preserved inside the school they attended as children.