In the Rockingham County section of the Shenandoah National Park area, Dean Mountain and Sunnyside were mountain schools operated by the Rockingham County Public School System and both closed at the end of the 1932-33 session. A year later, those school properties, along with the properties of residents whose land was condemned to establish Shenandoah National Park, were ceded to the federal government by the state of Virginia. Many mountain children attended schools just outside the park boundary, including Roadside, Sandy Bottom, Swift Run, Mt. Pleasant, Maple Springs, Rocky Bar, and the Episcopal Mission School St. Stephens at Rocky Bar. In these one-room schools, older children often helped younger ones with lessons, and many children advanced beyond their grade levels by hearing lessons taught to older students. Delbert Wood, who attended the Roadside school, recalled that discipline was usually not a problem for teachers because children disciplined at school were also disciplined at home. Schools were also centers of social life, with large participation by parents that showed the community's regard for education. The Dean Mountain property was deeded to the Stonewall District School Board on November 19, 1881, by Solomon Dean and wife, and the school opened for the 1881-82 session. Its original building burned in February of 1917 and was rebuilt to open for the 1918-19 session. During the last fifteen years of its existence, Dean Mountain School often struggled to maintain a legal number of students and was closed for many sessions. The Sunnyside School stood near the top of the Blue Ridge Mountain at Swift Run Gap, about a half mile south of what is now the intersection of U.S. Route 33 and the Skyline Drive. Its property was deeded to the Stonewall District School Board by Thomas Hensley and wife on February 20, 1890, and the school first opened for the 1890-91 session. Churches also gave mountain families places to gather for social occasions and special events. Inside the Rockingham County section of the park, the Pentecostal Holiness Church in Sandy Bottom, Fern Hill Methodist, and the United Brethren in Swift Run were the only churches, and Dean Mountain School also served as a church, reflecting the dual role that mountain schools and churches often played in their communities. Many northern Rockingham County mountain residents attended the Hensley Methodist Church in Thoroughfare just beyond the park boundary, while other nearby churches included Mt. Pleasant Methodist Church, the United Brethren Mt. Hebron Church in Beldor, Episcopal St. Stephens Church for residents of Simmons Gap and Rocky Bar, and Episcopal Grace Memorial Church near Lynwood for mountain families of the Port Republic area. Family burial plots and larger cemeteries can still be found beneath trees, underbrush, and leaf-covered fieldstone grave markers, and the Dean Mountain Cemetery was still being used at the time this account was prepared. The Swift Run United Brethren Church stood along the western slope of Swift Run Mountain near Spotswood Trail and the western park boundary, serving both park residents and the neighboring Swift Run community outside the park. Fern Hill Church operated from 1919 to 1937 just west of the park entrance station at Swift Run Gap, had 107 members in 1926, and served both Rockingham and Greene Counties and surrounding communities including Fern Hill, the southern part of the Dean Mountain community, Saddleback, and areas of Hightop. Rev. Stephen Hensley and his wife Harriet served the Thoroughfare Hensley Methodist Church, and he also preached at the Dean Mountain School.