Armstrong High School

Armstrong High School, part of the Richmond Public Schools, is a high school located in Richmond, Virginia, United States, with grades 9–12. The school was founded in 1867 as the Richmond Normal and High School by the Freedmen's Bureau and was eventually incorporated into the Richmond school system in 1876. The school's namesake is former Union General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, a white commander of a U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) regiment during the American Civil War. General Armstrong later founded Hampton Institute, a historically black college now known as Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. Armstrong was a mentor of Booker T. Washington. History The Richmond Normal and High School was conceived by Ralza M. Manly and opened in October 1867. It initially drew funding from a variety of sources, including the Freedmen's Bureau, American Freedmen's Union Commission, and local African-Americans. The Richmond Educational Association took over the school's operation when the Freedmen's Bureau ceased operations in the state in 1870. By the following year it had been renamed Richmond Colored Normal School and moved buildings. The city of Richmond took over the school in 1876. Around the 1880s the school was renamed the Richmond Colored High and Normal School and in 1909 it adopted its current name of Armstrong High School. The location of Armstrong High school has changed three times since 1909. Once in 1923, then in 1951, and then again in 2004. It is now in its fourth location. In 1909, the school was established at Leigh Streets at first and named in honor of Union General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, founder of Hampton University. The school then moved to a larger facility in 1923 at the corner of Prentis and Leigh Streets (now the Adult Career Development Center), and then to a new location, 1611 North 31st Street, in 1951.