Eric Christofferson, October 19, 2025
This post is related to the historic Fuquay Springs Teacherage in Fuquay-Varina. For newcomers that may be reading this, the Teacherage is the big 2-story brick building at the corner of Ennis and East Academy Street. It was first built for the Charles Strickland family in 1925. Then in 1945 it was sold to the Wake County School Board for the purpose of lodging K-12 teachers in Fuquay Springs that could not afford a home or an apartment. The School Board doubled the size of the building and operated it as a Teacherage for 23 years until 1968. It was a very prominent part of the school and civic community during those years.
When we purchased the Teacherage in 2003 one of our goals was to capture and preserve the wonderful history of the building. We’ve identified 31 teachers that once lived there and posted all of their pictures on the wall with info on their careers and time at the Teacherage. But that goal to capture history still stands and we’re always on the lookout for more. That’s why we were so tickled when my friend Gail Woolard introduced me to Joseph Benjamin Johnson, whose mother Alice Rosy Bryan Johnson was a teacher and had once lived at the Teacherage. We arranged to meet on September 6th, 2025 at the Teacherage. Present at this ‘sit down’ were Joe, his wife Debra and Gail and Dale Woolard. Dale and Joe were longtime friends and Gail was once a teacher at Mt. Auburn Elementary School when Alice was the principal there.
After a tour of the Teacherage, we all sat in the lobby and pulled up a chair. This was a place that Joe had never visited but that his Mom had lived in some 80 years earlier. Joe brought a 9×12 brown envelope with him that was filled with dozens of black and white photos taken long ago. Photos of his Mom with his Dad, with her students, with other teachers she was close to. As we passed them around, Joe, Gail or Dale would elaborate on those photos that evoked a memory or struck a chord. Joe allowed me to keep several that I was interested in and later shared more photos from his personal collection. For me, it was Christmas in September!
Joe also brought with him a detailed timeline of his Mom’s teaching career. She graduated from Meredith College in 1935 with aspirations to be a teacher. And she was a good one! She had a 42 year career stretched over 5 different schools. She taught the 4th grade at Fuquay Springs School from 1945 through 1952 and lived in the Teacherage in the 1945 and 1946 school years. Alice loomed large over her students – she was very nearly 6 feet tall! In pictures that Joe shared of her with her students, genuine smiles were everywhere and it was clear that she was well liked and respected.
Alice was one of the first teachers to occupy the Teacherage before it was doubled in size. She roomed with Estelle Litaker upstairs in the original portion of the building. Joe shared many photos of the two of them together and it was evident that they were not only roommates but good friends too.
Joe’s mother and father met at Elliott’s Pharmacy in 1942, as World War II was raging. His father, Boyette Leon Johnson, worked at Acme Dry Cleaners right behind Elliott’s on Depot Street where the empty lot sits today. (His sister Ila and brother-in-law Cellie Benton Barefoot owned Acme and also a barber shop on Main Street.) Their courtship began when he asked Alice if he could take her out for a nickel. She said yes so he took her to Elliott’s, bought her a fountain soda and there their courtship began at the lunch counter. Not long after, Boyette was drafted into the Army and sent to New Guinea. While away he regularly sent Alice money for an engagement ring. She saved the money and eventually bought a ring at Weatherman’s Jewelers in Raleigh. Boyette returned from the war in December 1945 and he and Alice were married on June 2, 1946. After the wedding the newlyweds bought a home at 311 Wade Street in Fuquay Springs where they lived for 10 years. Joe was born there.
Alice Rosy Bryan Johnson is now the 32nd teacher that is known to have lived at the Teacherage. In addition to the photos that Joe provided he also wrote a lovely biography of his mother’s life and family’s businesses in Fuquay Springs. These will be framed and put up on the walls of the Teacherage in a tribute to Alice. So many thanks to him for sharing this information with me and allowing me to share it here and on the walls of the Fuquay Springs Teacherage. Thanks also to Gail who put me in touch with Joe and who has a wealth of knowledge about the history of Fuquay-Varina in her own right.
A strange twist of fate worth noting: When growing up on Wade Street Joe had a childhood playmate that lived across the street named Curtis Holleman. Turns out that Curtis and his wife Kitty would one day own Elliots Pharmacy…and the same lunch counter where in 1942 Joe was but a sparkle in his parents’ eyes.
2025 brings not one, but two milestones for the Fuquay Springs Teacherage: the 100th anniversary of the original home built by Charles Strickland in 1925, and the 80th anniversary of the Wake County School Board’s purchase and conversion of the property into a Teacherage in 1945. An open house to the community to celebrate this piece of Fuquay-Varina history is being planned for December 6th. More information to come soon.