Bailey's Crossroads School
Around 1922, a new school was erected in Bailey’s Crossroads, Va. While no written documentation could be found identifying the architect, it can be attributed to Robinson based on its similarities to the Maury School in Arlington. The Bailey’s Crossroads School also shared nearly identical designs and dimensions as the Franklin Sherman School in McLean and Forestville School in Great Falls, which both opened eight years earlier.
Like Franklin Sherman, Bailey’s Crossroads had twin bays with banks of triple windows, protruding pediments with semi-circle windows below the gable roofline, and a central entrance with a portico supported by columns. The rear, visible in the photo above and others to left, also had a portico, an arched window above the portico, and triple window banks separated by concrete panels but it had a hipped roof instead of the gabled bays on the opposite elevation.
In 1946, after a large window pane blew into an occupied classroom, parents questioned the safety of the building. A new school opened and the old Bailey’s school remained unoccupied until it a newly-established college took it over. In 1957, the University of Virginia’s George Mason College moved in and remained there until 1964 when George Mason’s new campus opened in Fairfax. The old Bailey’s schoolhouse was demolished around 1971.