History
When the Boys Came to Town
George W. Miles had a vision. St. Albans, a new preparatory school for boys was to form future southern gentlemen and put Virginia’s newest city, Radford, on the map. The young educator from Smyth County thought big. He named the new school St. Albans after the famous St. Albans School in England, 20 miles northwest of London, founded in 948 A.D. as part of a monastery and one of the oldest boy’s schools in the world. Just like its English counterpart, the site for the new school was on a steep hill overlooking the river and town.
St. Albans, built in 1892
In fact, by the time the two St. Albans buildings where finished in September 1892, the rapidly growing town of Radford had been incorporated as a city and the brand new “Iron Horse” passenger bridge (modern-day Memorial Bridge) spanned the New River.
Exquisite mansions went up in the West End and a super-sized City Council (four members from the West Ward, four from the East and one mayor) was busy with building a bridge over Connolly’s Run. With its growing population, its favorable location as a gateway to West Virginia’s coalfields and a thriving business community, Radford was regarded as Southwest Virginia’s boomtown. George W. Miles, the founder and headmaster of St. Albans, was determined not to miss the opportunity.
On opening day in September 1892, 50 dormitory students from all over the South and 20 to 30 day students (living in Radford but coming over for classes) listened to the words of Thomas Nelson Page. The famous Virginian lawyer and writer had a clear message for the new institution: a good education stressed physical condition first and scholarly endeavors second. In this he was in complete agreement with Headmaster Miles, who had handpicked some of the best athletes from the South for his opening class.
The forward-thinking Miles subscribed to the funny notion that a successful school must be built around championship football and baseball teams. Today, more than 100 years later, with collegiate sports dominating campus life and a crucial component of university fundraising, one can safely say: he had a point..
He also had an eye for talent. St. Albans became one of the major athletic powerhouses in the state, regularly playing UVA, Virginia Tech and other universities – to the point where other prep schools didn’t want to compete anymore.
This athletic prowess must have left little room for scholarly excellence. The atmosphere at the school was rough and competitive. It clearly favored the stronger boys (or bullies as we would say today) and made short work of the more cerebral types like one E. Blackburn Runyon, whose painful experience at the school was poignantly summed up by a yearbook editor in 1904: “E. Blackburn Runyon did not return after Christmas, much to our sorrow, as it put a stop to the football games on the terrace in which he figured prominently as the football.”
