In 1912, Booker T. Washington, head of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, asked Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish philanthropist and president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, to serve on Tuskegee's board of directors, and their partnership led to the creation of the Rosenwald Fund to support the education of African-American children in the rural South. Between 1917 and 1932, 382 Rosenwald schools were built in Virginia, and eight in Fauquier County provided quality education to untold numbers of African-Americans. In Rectortown, Luke Woodward provided the land for the original No. 12 School at this site, and Rosenwald supplied seed money to encourage community support for a new and improved No. 12. The new school was built in 1924 at a cost of $4,500.00, funded by Black contributions of $800.00, public contributions of $3000.00, and a Rosenwald contribution of $700.00. Growth and population in the 1950's made a third classroom necessary. Among the teachers of grades 1-7 were Miss L.E. Washington, Miss C.E. Lewis, and Mrs. Eura H. Lewis. A retainer wall and its steps, constructed in 1952 by former pupil Reginald Tines, remain as a monument to No. 12.