The old hallways are mostly quiet now and the one-time classrooms are used for living rather than learning.
Constructed in 1941 as Kempsville High School at what was then the quiet intersection of Princess Anne and Kempsville roads, the FiveTwoFive Historic Kempsville Apartments now offer the unique opportunity for modern living in a historic building.
The high school graduated its first class in 1942 and a gymnasium was added in 1949. In 1954 a new high school was built nearby and the 1941 building became an intermediate school; then Kemps Landing School in 1967; and a “magnet” school in 1995. It was used off and on over the next few years when the school district needed extra space, and in 2006 it was turned over to the city. Around 2009 it served as the Renaissance School for a while before being finally abandoned for good and falling into disrepair.
Demolition was inevitable, but some protests from area residents may have helped save the historic structure.
Kayla King, apartment manager, said that in 2014 four partners from the area came together and agreed that the building was worthy of being saved. Work started in 2015, adhering to various stipulations that would ensure the history of the structure be preserved adequately.
The apartments were finished and the first resident moved in on August 5, 2016.
“People came in during construction with a lot of stories,” King said. “It’s amazing how vividly they remember being in school here, and personally that’s very humbling to me.”
Much about the structure remains original: brick walls, steel beams, stairs and stair railings, and the windows are original too, with small changes for sizing.
Some walls had to be removed and many of those bricks were given away as mementos. Auditorium seating also had to be removed. Some of the seating was cut up and discarded, but like the bricks, some were claimed as memories.
However, many of the lockers remain where they’ve been for the last 77 years: Lining the hallways of the former school.
In September of 2016 the building was named as a City of Virginia Beach Landmark and received its very own plaque.
“When you preserve a landmark you’ve got to do it right,” King said. “It really is history in your home.”
She said that sometimes they still get the occasional well-meaning parent stopping in to try and register their child for school, probably due to the fact that a school sign had to remain in place, with “Kempsville High School” in big, bold letters.
Likewise, people once in a while still try to enter the building through the front doors, which look somewhat like doors but are now windows for one of the first floor apartments.
The area that was originally the school cafeteria is a common room, while the boiler room has been converted into a maintenance room for the apartment’s staff.
In all, 24 apartments were carved out of the school.
For two weeks the building’s first tenant was its only resident.
“I said to him, ‘Let me know if it’s haunted,” King said with a laugh. No ghosts were reported, but there is a somewhat spooky video that can still be found online of a rather unofficial tour of the school when it was still sitting abandoned.
To keep the history theme going the various apartment layouts have been named after one of the area schools: The Salem, The Tallwood, The Providence, and so forth.
In the area behind the converted school, which was once the gym and the school yard, new apartments have been constructed. Those are named after area streets, which themselves are named after historic figures associated with the area’s past, such as Kempe, Walke, and Princess Anne.
Work on the new apartment complex was held up for nearly a year when a pair of eagles were discovered nesting in a tree there. The tree couldn’t be touched until the pair’s offspring was finally able to fly away from the nest.
In all, some 168 apartments now occupy the former school property.
Additional information about FiveTwoFive Historic Kempsville can be found online.
