About

The Schoolfield Welfare Building, located in Danville and completed in 1917, was constructed by Dan River, Inc., and built in support of the textile mill company's progressive welfare policies that aimed to better the lives of its mostly female workforce. The Welfare Building offered millworkers a meeting space, child care facilities, and a second-floor clinic. Combining Mission and Classical Revival architectural styles, the Welfare Building is among the buildings that remain from the Schoolfield mill complex. The listing also includes a children's log playhouse constructed in 1938 in the Rustic style for a kindergarten that operated in the Welfare Building. In 2008, the Schoolfield Preservation Foundation purchased the playhouse and building, with plans to rehabilitate it for use as a museum and rental office space.