In 1870, the public education system in Spotsylvania County was established with segregated one-room schools. These schools were gradually abandoned for larger buildings combining both elementary and high schools. The former Spotsylvania High School was a state-of-the-art building when constructed in 1939 for $158,000. During the twentieth century, the school system moved from scattered one-room schools for elementary education to consolidated schools for grades 1–12, to an integrated system in 1968. Until that time, most African-American children attended one-room schools until the John J. Wright Consolidated School opened in 1952. Since 1968, the school system has evolved to the present system of separate elementary, middle, and high schools.