In its heyday Schoolfield, which boasted the largest single-unit textile operation in the world, was a complete mill "village" built by the Riverside and Dan River Cotton Mills, later Dan River Inc.  Not only did the company-owned town build more than 800 houses and a company store, but it also boasted amenities such a YMCA/Recreation Center, a medical clinic, police and fire protection, and even a community band and bandshell.  Two institutions central to Schoolfield life were its churches, and its schools-from kindergarten through high school.

The National Register nomination for the Baltimore Avenue School/Schoolfield High School on Baltimore Avenue, characterizes the site as "the heart of the formerly thriving Schoolfield textile manufacturing community."  The earliest (1913) academic building is complemented by two others in a three-building complex completed on the eve of the Second World War.  The school offered "education to the children of mill workers who poured into the area for jobs (at the mill), mostly arriving from the mountains of southwest Virginia and North Carolina."

The eclectic Prairie-style building, two stories over a raised basement, is a 1913 design product of architect Charles G. Pettit, Jr., of Lynchburg and Danville.  Two years earlier, Addison Schoolfield, one of three brothers who founded the mills, and family namesake for the village, had retained Mr. Pettit to design his own dwelling, also inspired by Prairie style, across Main Street from Mount Vernon Methodist Church.

Now, thanks to the efforts of historic rehab specialists, The Landmark Group of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, it's possible even for a Schoolfield High School alum to fall asleep, chew gum, or daydream while looking out one of the immense windows in a former classroom-turned-living-quarters.  Augmenting their original mellow floors and high ceilings, these one- and two-bedroom handicapped-accessible apartments - 46 in all - offer amenities such central HVAC, laundry rooms, fitness area and computer center.