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Walker Building Revitalization
Revitalized Walker Building Student Tour
Walker Building Revitalization
When J. Carter Walker returned to Woodberry Forest in 1897 to assist his father, Robert Stringfellow Walker, and to become Woodberry’s first headmaster, father and son quickly began planning for a new prep school building.
After Mr. Walker mortgaged the Woodberry property to secure $30,000 and called upon friends, neighbors, and relatives for loans, work on what was then called the Main Building began in 1898. The foundation was made from bricks fired where the third green of Woodberry’s golf course now sits. Trees from Woodberry and surrounding farms were logged for timber to frame out the rooms.
When the building opened in February 1899, it was cutting edge, and the finest private prep school building in the South. Additions over the following decades, as well as updates to the original space, made it the place where Woodberry boys lived, ate, and studied.
As of Fall 2021, Woodberry has completely updated and revitalizing the Walker Building, ensuring that it is once again a cutting edge space devoted to educating boys.
In 2017 the William H. White Library moved from Hanes Hall to the former Reynolds Family Dining Room. The main level of the library, now called the Reynolds Family Learning Commons, is devoted to collaborative spaces for teaching classes or holding group study sessions. The upper level of the library, in Dunnington Reading Room, is home to the Academic Development Center and is also a place of quiet study.
Many changes have occurred in the Walker Building. A Dorm has become the new home of the Admission and College Counseling Offices. B Dorm and C Dorm received their first complete overhaul in decades, with new rooms that are more evenly sized. The dormitories now have air conditioning for the first time.
Community street has been reimagined as a space devoted entirely to students. A revamped student store, and the remodeled Fir Tree has been enhanced and expanded. The Outdoors Program has a designated space for gear check-out, bike repairs, and meetings. Two large game areas give the boys living on Walker and all other boys a place to congregate for pool, ping-pong, and more. A new kitchen gives students a place to prepare food with their friends or advisory group.
Restoring this historic building and ensuring it is ready to serve the next generation of students ensures we will be best serving all Woodberry boys in the future.
Follow the Walker Building on Social Media for the Latest Updates!
Frank Edwards '88 and Rick Hopkins '87 Talk About Their Walker Building Experience At Woodberry
Facebook LIVE Tour of the Walker Building on April 26, 2019
Walker Building Video Fall 2018
A Special Announcement about the Walker Building
Woodberry Forest admits students of any race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, and national or ethnic origin to all of the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic or other school-administered programs. The school is authorized under federal law to enroll nonimmigrant students.