Turner Ashby High School

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Turner Ashby High School is located in Bridgewater, Virginia in the Rockingham County Public School district.HistoryTurner Ashby High School opened in the fall of 1956. It became the third consolidated high school in Rockingham County. Schools consolidated were Bridgewater, Dayton, and Mt. Clinton. The original Turner Ashby building was located on a 20acre plot on the north side of Dayton, and now serves grades six through eight as Wilbur S. Pence Middle School.The name Turner Ashby High School was selected by the majority-white Rockingham County School Board because of the school's location in the Ashby District of the county and in tacit resistance to the American Civil Rights movement which had begun two years earlier. The district was named for rebel Brigadier General Turner Ashby, who fought and was killed by American forces in a battle near Harrisonburg during the Civil War.The original building was designed and constructed for 715 students in grades eight through twelve. The approximate cost of the school was $1,000,000. Classroom additions were added in 1960 and 1962. Mobile units were added for classroom use in 1973, 1975, and 1980. In 1966, the eighth grade was moved to the John w wing, the library was expanded and a women's team room was added.A fairly recent addition to the facility is the memorial garden called the Garden of Angels, built in honor of students who "departed life while attending Turner Ashby High School".