Henrico Black History Month Spotlight – William Leroy Vandervall

In honor of February as Black History Month, the Henrico Citizen will spotlight (on each weekday during the month) an important current or former Black resident of Henrico whose life has helped shape the county.

William Leroy Vandervall played a quiet but lasting role in shaping African-American education and community life in western Henrico County in the decades after the Civil War.

Born May 31, 1860, to Leroy Peters Vandervall and Ann Rebecca Johnson, he came from a family of free Black people who had lived in the Richmond area since at least the early 19th century. His father accumulated several properties before the war, and afterward the family settled on farmland in what is now western Henrico. Their land became a gathering place for the fledgling Quioccasin Baptist Church congregation in 1866, and the Vandervalls later donated both property and timber for the church’s first sanctuary.

By 1880, Vandervall was living in Richmond and working as a servant, according to census records. Two decades later, however, he had established himself as a schoolteacher and returned to the Tuckahoe District, likely to the family farm, with his wife Mary and their children.

During the course of his career, he served as both teacher and principal at Quioccasin and Zion Town Schools and gave land for an African-American school on Quioccasin Road, a site now occupied by a county fire station. During segregation, Henrico County honored his contributions by naming a new school on Pemberton Road as William Leroy Vandervall Elementary School. The building continued in use after desegregation, though it was later renamed Pemberton Elementary School.

Vandervall also broke barriers beyond the classroom. In 1903 he became the first African-American postal carrier to serve areas west of Three Chopt Road along River Road, a position he held for many years. Married three times — to Janie Briggs, Mary Dandridge, and Lelia Uln — he was the father of at least four children.

Vandervall died Oct. 10, 1934, leaving behind a legacy rooted in public service, education, and the development of Henrico County’s Black institutions in the early 20th century.

View a video produced by Henrico County Television about Vandervall here.