Sept. 4, 1996

For more than 20 years the members of Willis Chapel Methodist Church have been working to prevent the old Reager School Building which adjoins their property from deteriorating, while also working to gain title to the property.

When the building ceased serving a school, the title reverted to many heirs of the family of the family that had donated land for the school. Some still live in the area. At least one lives in California.

Finally, this past spring the church gained title to the property through donations from the surviving heirs, and now the members are working to restore the building for use as a fellowship hall.

Judy Burke said she has checked school board records, and the school was in use as late as 1954. She said she never attended the school, but her father did. When he died early in the summer, the family asked for memorial donations to be made to the cause, and Mrs. Burke said that was quite successful.

Bob and Helen Bridges have put 277 acres of their land between Washington and Sperryville into easement, including their end of Jenkins Mountain, their pastures and ponds, and their frontage on both sides of the Covington River.

“Wouldn’t it be horrible to see this subdivided, to see 20 or 30 houses?” Mr. Bridges said, gesturing towards the spectacular view from “Eagle’s Nest,” their mountaintop home.

“It’s heaven. That’s what it is… We’re only caretakers of this land. If you don’t do something to protect it while you’re alive, you don’t know what might happen to it in the future,” he said.