Belmead

O-85

Belmead, the Gothic Revival-style home of planter Philip St. George Cocke, was designed by Alexander J. Davis in 1845 and built with enslaved African Americans’ labor. Louise Drexel Morrell and her sister, Katharine Drexel—founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and a saint of the Catholic Church—were instrumental in establishing two schools here in the 1890s. St. Emma Industrial and Agricultural Institute (later St. Emma Military Academy), for many decades the nation’s only military school for African American young men, and St. Francis de Sales High School for Black and Native American young women educated thousands of students from across the U.S. and abroad before closing in the 1970s.

Department of Historic Resources, 2022

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Kenneth Koons and Dictionary of Virginia Biography, “Philip St. George Cocke (1809–1861),” Encyclopedia Virginia, Virginia Humanities, 22 Dec. 2021: https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/cocke-philip-st-george-1809-1861/ “Belmead,” Society of Architectural Historians Archipedia: https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-PO15 “The Other Drexel: Louise Drexel Morrell,” The Catholic Historical Research Center of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia (https://chrc-phila.org/the-other-drexel-louise-drexel-morrell/) Sister Mary Barst Smith, S.B.S., “A History of St. Emma’s Military Academy and St. Francis de Sales High School,” M.A. Thesis, Catholic University of America, 1949.