ng, two-year high school,
founded in 1911, but the property on which it was built had actually
been deeded to the school board over forty years earlier. In 1876 George
Kenfield deeded about six acres of land to the Frying Pan School
Association and the property remained in school use through several
owner changes.[237] One- and two-room schools stood on the land until
1911 when a larger building was completed.[238]

The citizens of Floris had worked together to raise money for the
vocational school; they also contributed their skills and time to its
construction. Under the direction of two (often dissenting) contractors,
a Mr. Sheffield and Jack Walker, pupils and parents helped to raise the
three-story brick structure, and later to build a smaller agricultural
shop a short distance from the main schoolhouse. The school was open to
the entire county but the immediate community continued to feel a
special interest in it. The Floris Home Demonstration Club served hot
lunches in the school for many years and around 1924 they sponsored the
hiring of a music teacher at their own expense until the county and
state finally gave support to the teacher.[239]

Floris Vocational High School was an immediate success. In 1924 it had
150 pupils, evenly divided between primary and secondary grades, and
hailing chiefly from the Herndon area. Students walked or rode horseback
to reach their classes; some, such as Virginia Presgraves Harrison from
Loudoun County, boarded with local families.[240] The high school
offered the standard curriculum courses of English, American and
European history, algebra, geography, physics and chemistry. Courses in
higher mathematics (plane geometry and trigonometry) were optional as
were English history and foreign languages. The school differed from the
county's other secondary institutions in the varied agriculturally
oriented courses it taught. Boys learned the principles of agronomy,
animal husbandry, soil control and veterinary science, and were expected
to put the theoretical knowledge into practice with test animals and
acreage on their home farms. They also sharpened their skills in
agricultural shop courses. Under the guidance of Ford Lucas and, later,
Harvey D. Seale, they were taught carpentry, motor repair,
blacksmithing, indeed, everything from building chicken coops to "how to
put a roof on a barn and keep it from leaking."[241] Classes for the
girls also stressed the relationship between t