Amos Clayton, son of the village's founder, and his wife Elizabeth, parents of 12 children, provided one half-acre of their land for a schoolhouse and nondenominational church, and the founding indenture signed at Clayton Hall on May 21, 1825, specified a house for a public school and place for divine worship. Tuition was $3 to pay a teacher who taught students ages six to sixteen of all learning levels in a single classroom, while families supplied schoolbooks that children often shared and, because paper was scarce, students practiced writing and arithmetic on slates. About a quarter century later, the community stopped using the building as a church when Snickersville built its stone church, still in use today. In the one-room schoolhouse, children learned reading, writing, and arithmetic, and their readers also taught history, wild animals, Aesop's fables, moral choices, and the Constitution of the United States and principles of government through Noah Webster's spelling book. During the Civil War years, the schoolhouse reduced hours because children had less time for schooling as they took on extra duties at home in place of older men who had become soldiers, and a few older schoolboys took part in an 1864 skirmish uphill on Snickersville Turnpike when Confederate and Union soldiers met unexpectedly and exchanged fire. After the Civil War, Virginia slowly established public schools, including the Snickersville Academy in 1870, until the multi-classroom Mountain Shadow School opened on Snickersville Turnpike two years later. The old schoolhouse then served as rental housing for almost a century, including nearly 30 years as the home of Susie Neil, whose descendants still return to the cabin and have shared many memories. After owning the mountain farm that included the Academy for 60 years, the Hatcher family donated it to Friends of Bluemont in 2010, and over the next five years the group restored the building with period materials and local craftsmen skilled in pioneer building techniques. In May 2015, on the 190th anniversary of its founding, the Snickersville Academy was dedicated as a community resource, and Friends of Bluemont, a nonprofit historical association established in 2002, preserves local history, highlights memories, and operates the Snickersville Academy and the Bluemont Heritage website.