From time to time over the years, Joseph Braggs would stop in Fredericksburg and ask for directions.
“You know Joseph Walker’s school?” he’d query anyone he encountered.
Joseph Braggs spoke at Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting at the new Walker-Grant Middle School. The school’s partial namesake is Braggs’ great-great uncle, Joseph Walker. (Photos by Suzanne-Carr-Rossi)
A ninth-grade dropout himself, Braggs took pride in the school’s partial namesake, his great-great uncle Joseph Walker, a formerly enslaved man who, once emancipated, became a prominent businessman and community leader in the city.
Braggs, too, ultimately rose above his circumstances.
“Since then, the Lord’s blessed me, and I’ve got three college degrees,” he said on Wednesday morning. “But I was inspired by Joseph Walker. And, you know, Fredericksburg, I believe, is the epitome of what America is supposed to be like.”
On Wednesday, Braggs made one more stop in Fredericksburg, driving all night from his home in Georgia to serve as the guest of honor at a ribbon-cutting for the new Walker-Grant Middle School in the Idlewild subdivision.
The entirety of Fredericksburg’s City Council and school board, along with a number of school officials and community leaders, attended Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting, which was followed by a brief tour and reception.
Walker-Grant Middle School over the years
1966-1988: Gunnery Spring building educates all city middle school students
1988: Previous Walker-Grant Middle School opens at 1 Learning Lane
October 2022:City Council approves budget amendment, reflecting $74.8 million for a new middle school
May 2023:Project breaks ground, led by English Construction Company and Moseley Architects
Aug. 18:First day of school in new building
Notably absent were the school’s faculty and staff; they were inside, eagerly unboxing and setting up their previously unoccupied classrooms.
“They literally just found their workspaces a few hours ago,” Deputy Superintendent Matt Eberhardt said.
Eberhardt joked that the school’s staff was “discovering the problems of new home ownership, where no one knows where anything is, what to do, or where they are in the building.”
Mayor Kerry Devine noted that when the previous Walker-Grant Middle School opened in 1988, the city’s population was 18,000. Now it’s approaching 30,000, including more than 870 middle school students enrolled for the start of the school year on Aug. 18.
“This school will continue to meet the needs of the expanded population of our city,” Devine said.
The school “has a special place in my heart,” said FCPS Superintendent Marci Catlett, who attended seventh and eighth grade in the original Walker-Grant Middle off Gunnery Road, known as the “1935 building.” Years later, Catlett was part of the teaching staff who migrated to the previous facility in 1988.
The $74.8 million project broke ground in May 2023, and student input was sought for a handful of design choices; local teens, for example, voted on the pattern for the hardwood floor in the gymnasium.
At the core of the new building is an expansive courtyard with space for several outdoor classrooms. For his part, School Board Chair Matt Rowe noted with glee that every classroom in the new school has a window.
The courtyard at the new Walker-Grant Middle School in Fredericksburg.
“That’s a big improvement for many of us,” Rowe said. “It’s a small detail, but what it reminds us is how much thought went into creating a space that supports learning and well-being.”
The man charged with that well-being, Walker-Grant Principal Stephen Ventura, said that Wednesday’s gathering was more than just a ribbon cutting — it was a celebration of possibility.
“You didn’t just invest in a project,” Ventura said. “You invested in a promise. A promise that every child deserves a fresh start, a bright future, and a space worthy of their potential.”
