Last week’s article contained an error and also needs two clarifications. There are two remaining buildings on the old Rappahannock Central Elementary (RCE) School campus, not just one. The one pictured with last week’s story is the shuttered school’s cafeteria/auditorium building. It is the one closest to General Puller Highway. It is not called the Katharine F. Kidd Memorial Building, which instead refers just to the building behind the old cafeteria/auditorium.
Unlike the old cafeteria/auditorium, the Kidd building — a former RCE multi-purpose building — has not gone unused for the last two decades. It is currently used to house Middlesex County Public Schools’ Compass Academy. That second building is pictured above on the right. Mrs. Kidd, who was hired as the RCE school secretary in 1967, was the longtime secretary at RCE who was loved, respected and admired by all.
The old RCE campus is in Middlesex’s Cooks Corner community. That community’s name is spelled at least three different ways in county historical books and other publications. It was spelled Cooks Corner in the “Signatures in Time, A Living History of Middlesex County, Virginia” book and Cooks’ Corner in “A History of African-Americans in Middlesex County 1646-1992.” It can also be found to be spelled Cook’s Corner. The Sentinel follows the spelling used in the “Signatures in Time” book.
