Thomas Jefferson High School was built, beginning in December 1962, by general contractor John Tester & Son at a cost of $2.18 million. During the planning and design progress, the facility was known as the Lincolnia-Weyanoke high school. The school was named in honor of President Thomas Jefferson by the Fairfax County School Board in October 1962.

Did you know that the first students to attend school at Thomas Jefferson were actually elementary school children? On Sunday, February 23, 1964, arsonists set fire to Braddock Elementary School in Annandale. Nearly all of the school’s classrooms suffered damage by flames, smoke, or water. Thomas Jefferson High School was still under construction, but enough of the facility had been completed that contractor John Tester gave the school system permission to house Braddock’s 570 students in Jefferson’s second floor classrooms for the remainder of the school year.

Thomas Jefferson High School opened as a secondary school on September 1, 1964, with 1,413 students, 61 teachers, and 13 staff members. The school had grades 8-11 and became a regular four-year high school with grades 9-12 during its second year. The student body was drawn from Annandale, Lee, Stuart, and Woodson high schools. The school’s first principal, William H. Jordan, came to Jefferson from Falls Church High School where he had served as principal since 1959.

Thomas Jefferson High School was the last high school built in Fairfax County without air conditioning. The school had 37 general classrooms, one classroom with a stage, a foreign language lab, 11 student activities rooms, seven science labs, two art labs, and a music suite which included a band room, choral room, and five music practice rooms. The school also had classrooms for home economics, business education, industrial arts, electronics, ceramics, and health.

A Year of Firsts

On September 11, 1964, Thomas Jefferson’s junior varsity football team inaugurated its first season in Group 1-A, Northern District competition against Groveton High School. Jefferson did not have a varsity football team its first year, but its junior varsity (JV) team dominated the playing field and finished the season undefeated.

Similarly, Jefferson’s JV boys basketball team ruled the court and finished its season with a 12-2 record. Jefferson formed its first varsity boys basketball team in the post-season, and the varsity team played its first game at the St. Stephen’s Invitational in February 1965.

During Jefferson’s first year, several fundraisers were held to purchase band uniforms, robes for the choral department, and lights for the football field. Two such events were a magazine drive in October and a chicken dinner in February.

Jefferson High School held its first science fair on March 5, 1965. One week later, theater students Cathy Hodgson, Mark Barnes, Grainger Barrett, Harry Howell, and Jean Sanders, performed an adaptation of Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” in the Virginia High School League’s One-Act Play Tournament. On March 26, Jefferson’s home economics department and the Future Homemakers of America club held the school’s first annual beauty contest, and Sandy Simmons was crowned the first “Miss Jefferson High School.”

Also in March, the Colonials’ symphonic and concert bands performed in their first district festivals. At the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s 41st annual newspaper-magazine convention in New York, Jefferson’s school newspaper “Town Crier” took second place, and the school’s literary magazine “Jefferson Jottings” took third place, in the association’s journalistic honors competition.

In April, Jefferson High School presented its first spring choral concert, which featured a performance of “Requiem,” a French composition. Also in April, the baseball and softball teams played their first varsity games, and the school’s Keyettes and Key clubs donated 3,000 pounds of clothing to the Salvation Army.

Student Life

In September 1966, construction began on a $875,000 addition to Thomas Jefferson High School. The addition was completed in time for the opening of schools in September 1967.

In March 1969, Jefferson’s senior class held an ice cream social to raise money for the prom and graduation ceremony. The school’s Student Cooperative Association also staged a fundraiser with carnival rides, pony rides, a baseball toss, penny toss, and a shooting gallery.

In September 1970, Thomas Jefferson High School had an enrollment of 1,988 students. Throughout the coming decade, the school continued to hold annual ice cream socials and beauty pageants. Jefferson’s stage band held its first “Spring Fling” fundraiser in April 1973. Also in 1973, Thomas Jefferson High School hosted its first invitational basketball tournament, and the choral department hosted its first annual Tri-Concert, which featured choral and chamber singers from Jefferson and two area high schools.

1976 was a particularly exciting year for Jefferson’s choral music department. The country was celebrating the bicentennial of the United States and Jefferson’s chorus performed “Sounds of America,” which had been produced under the direction of Dr. Gareth Bond, the school’s choral music director. “Sounds of America” was hailed for its outstanding music, dancing, choreography, acting, costuming, and for its unique presentation of American life in the past, present, and future. The performance was so popular that Thomas Jefferson High School was named Fairfax County’s official representative to the Commonwealth of Virginia and other southern states for bicentennial-related music performances for the year.

The Annandale Merger

In 1972, after three decades of continued growth, enrollment in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) peaked at 138,000 students. From the mid-1970s into the 1980s, enrollment steadily declined, which led to the closure of 13 elementary schools between 1975 and 1982. As more and more students aged out of the school system, the intermediate and high schools began to see an abundance of empty classrooms.

In the early 1980s, FCPS leadership began discussing the creation of a science and technology high school for the county. In the spring of 1984, the School Board directed the superintendent to prepare a comprehensive plan for the establishment of the new high school. FCPS leaders wanted the science and technology high school to operate as a separate facility from any existing school, and community members suggested Falls Church, Marshall, and Thomas Jefferson high schools as possible sites.

Because its location was favorable, and its enrollment was in steep decline, Thomas Jefferson High School was deemed the ideal site for the new high school. On June 28, 1984, the School Board approved the conversion of Jefferson to a science and technology high school and directed that the existing school be phased-out and merged with Annandale High School. The new school was given the name Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology by the School Board on December 20, 1984.

The ’84-’85 school year was a time to do all the small things you’d somehow never had time for earlier. This was Jefferson’s last year as a four-year conventional high school and we wanted to be remembered. ~ Beth Spyrison

The existing Thomas Jefferson High School was phased out over the next two school years, 1985-86 and 1986-87, as the science and technology high school was simultaneously phased-in. Thomas Jefferson High School graduated its last class of seniors on June 11, 1987.

The Robert A. Evans Memorial Field

Robert A. Evans Memorial Field was given its name by the School Board on October 26, 1972. Robert Evans came to Fairfax County in 1958 as a head track coach, assistant football coach, and physical education teacher at Lee High School. He was the athletic director of Jefferson High School from the opening of the school in 1964 until his passing. The School Board resolution naming the facility for Mr. Evans described him as “A leader… who believed in and practiced good sportsmanship both on and off the playing fields. He set an example for the young people with whom he came into daily contact and to whom he devoted his life.”

View Thomas Jefferson yearbooks. 

The Principals

The principals of Thomas Jefferson High School were William H. Jordan (1964-74), Frank H. Elliott (1974-80), and Richard L. Murphy (1980-87).

The First Thomas Jefferson High School

Did you know that prior to its incorporation as a city, the town of Falls Church was part of Fairfax County, and the public schools within the town limits were operated by Fairfax County Public Schools? In 1907, the town of Falls Church’s public school, called the Thomas Jefferson Institute or Jefferson Institute for short, became one of Fairfax County’s first publicly-funded high schools. Known thereafter as Jefferson High School, the facility operated until 1945 when it was replaced by Falls Church High School.