It is the purpose of this thesis to develop the design of a civic and recreation center for Pulaski County, Virginia, which will to the best or the author's ability satisfy two major requirements. The first requirement is that the building shall fulfill the specific needs of the citizens of Pulaski County in providing them with the facilities to carry on those recreational, social, cultural, and civic activities which a.re so necessary for their individual well being and so necessary for making Pulaski a more progressive, a more enjoyable, and a healthier county in which to live. In order to evolve the plans for a building that will fulfill this requirement, it was necessary for the author to go out into Pulaski County and meet the people for whom he was designing. Only by such a method could the author hope to integrate his planning with the tempo and patterns or their daily lives. In the following section the citizens of Pulaski will be introduced to the reader as the author came to know them, to know their general characteristics, their interests, their present needs, and their future dreams. The second requirement is that through a synthesis of the function, the structure, and the aesthetic qualities of the building, it will reflect the noble character of the Pulaski Perpetual Endowment Fund project and will serve as an inspirational memorial to those citizens who, by their contributions, will make the project a success. / Master of Science

Architecture frames life. By framing I mean that it gives individual awareness perimeters which shape the habits of the mind while the material frame supports the life of the body. We live in the center of our awareness. Some of Wallace Stevens’ poetry explores the habits and the shape of consciousness. Consider these lines: I measure myself / Against a tall tree / I find that I am much taller / For I reach right up to the sun / With my eye / And I reach to the shore of the sea / With my ear. (1) A building is a physical entity which gives us rooms and spaces. A dualism lies in thing and void because it necessarily constricts movement as well as shaping the consciousness as one moves to and fro and as one gazes into the distance. One’s desire to do these things may be frustrated by a poor building, while a well-formed building might encourage a choreography of consciousness, a mental dance. More than any other art, architecture presses upon daily life. It reminds us of the duality of mind and body. When we can enjoy the dual nature of architecture, we become more aware of our wonderful creatureness. A pleasant opposition forms between a sensed object-building and a sensing, willing, walking, inquiring creature. Tactility and other physical qualities which are sensed contribute to vital awareness. I define architecture as the art of building that serves vital feeling over time. Exterior conditions also frame life. Literal enclosure is not required. For example, a field may form a realm, that is, an ordered place under the sky. We know where we are in a realm. In a city, the parts belong together when most of them are ordered by common elements such as a street or a market square. In the United States, most familiar cities and towns are formed by the street. Often the buildings and the street make a canyon-like room for movement and activity. The life that flows through the street creates a city and nourishes it. Commerce, symbolic activities like parades and social activities like teen-age cruising maintain street life in even the smallest and most ordinary towns. The thesis project proposes a multiuse building to pull people into a downtown center. Pulaski, Virginia is the chosen town which I will describe in the next section. I begin the design with mass conceptually carved out to frame experience. The building I designed gives Pulaski a stronger downtown edge. This makes a boundary and a turning point to reinforce its identity as a place people feel proud to call home, and to renew the firm pattern of density to guide future builders and planners. This is necessary to forestall the common disintegration of the urban edge into a straggly commercial strip with disconcerting gaps and irregularity. Consider now the specific details of one small town. / Master of Architecture

The purpose of this study was to discover the various meanings that the Pulaski Theatre held for the residents of Pulaski and the theatre's social importance to the town. The following research objectives directed this study: 1) to document the theatre's history from the time it was built in 1911 until the present day, 2) to uncover memories or feelings associated with the theatre, and 3) to determine if design features of the theatre building influenced those feelings/memories. In documenting the history of the theatre, design features of the original 1911 building were examined as well as changes over time. To determine if design features of the building influenced the feelings/memories that were associated with the structure it was important first to discover which architectural and design features people remembered, if any, and then to determine if these design features reflected a meaningful association, i.e. sense of place to participants. Also of interest was whether this association or sense of place would be similar or different for all. Participants were fifteen males and females aged 43 to 82 who had attended the theatre over time. All participants grew up in Pulaski and six had lived there their entire lives. Both African Americans and Caucasians participated. Subjects were asked to draw a picture of the theatre that expressed their experience of the space. After the drawing, they were asked to discuss the picture and its meaning to them. Clare Cooper Marcus and others used this environmental autobiography technique as a method to bring a person's experiences of a place to a conscious level. Tape-recorded interviews were conducted and transcribed by the researcher to discover memories of the theatre and the meaning of the theatre to the participants. Data were analyzed by coding to look for emerging themes or categories that relate to the research question. Of interest was whether or not the Pulaski Theatre represented a sense of place to residents and if that sense of place varied for different participants. Document research was conducted through old newspapers and artifacts in the Raymond Ratcliffe Museum (the historic museum in Pulaski), documents from scrapbooks, architectural plans, and the files of the Town of Pulaski. Themes that were identified from the research were (1) the structure was an integral part of the community, (2) the theatre was a reflection of the community's social norms and roles, such as segregation, and (3) the theatre interior contributed to the social atmosphere of the space. The theatre building, while transformed over time, retained a presence in the town and memories associated with it across time were significant in creating a sense of place in the community. The theatre was remembered as a setting that brought excitement and stimulation to children and adults for many years. Participants felt "at home" in the theatre, having favored sections of the theatre where they routinely sat. School children attending the weekly matinees in the summer and African Americans sitting in their special section of the balcony developed a special identity with that particular space within the theatre. Even after segregation, many African Americans continued to sit in the balcony where they had sat for many years and felt at home. The unique characteristics of these spaces were dependent on the people that frequented them rather than the architecture of the building. The sense of place was one of personal relationships and emotional attachments rather than of bricks and mortar. Memories of the theatre were stories of groups or individuals and their interactions in the space. The building represented these individuals and what they brought to this place and time. The Pulaski Theatre played a great role in interactions with friends and neighbors and was significant in reflecting a sense of place in this community. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to observe the manner in which a certain small rural elementary school was affected by being consolidated with several other small rural schools to form a consolidated unit f,or a given school district. This study was focused upon three areas. First, the study had particular regard for the comparison of reading achievement for a certain group of students both before and after consolidation. Secondly, there was a comparison of the attendance of the students before and after consolidation. Lastly, the opinion of the parents of these students was surveyed to determine their feelings regarding the consolidation. The study revealed the following: The data showed, first of all, that there was significant change in the area of reading achievement. Thus, it appeared that consolidation had brought some improvement in the area of reading achievement. In the second area of pupil attendance a slight improvement was noted. This may have been, perhaps, the result of the transportation system which implemented the consolidation. Thirdly, concerning the opinions of parents in relation to their consolidated school, the survey produced information which indicated that the parents of the school were happy with the consolidation. / M.S.

It has been the purpose of this study to determine the medical care needs among rural Pulaski County folks in relation to tenure, land class, and occupations which are indicative of income, age and sex, schooling of the homemaking, size of family or household, distance from medical personnel and facilities, and loss of income through absenteeism from wrong because of illness. The expenditures for six types of medical care and health insurance were also studied in relation to the factors above. / M.S.

Broken-formations (Hsu, 1974; Harris and Milici, 1977) occur in the lower part of the Pulaski thrust sheet and contain some of the most strongly deformed sedimentary rocks in the Valley and Ridge province of the southern Appalachians. Deformation in this zone ranges from grain-scale cataclasis to regional-scale faulting. The broken-formations are distinguished from rocks structurally higher on the sheet and from rocks of the underlying Saltville sheet by (1) a sharp increase in the variability of fold and fault styles, (2) greater ranges in fold plunges and dips of axial surfaces, (3) a low degree of preferred orientation of folds and faults, (4) an increase in the frequency of mesoscopic structures, and (5) the presence of Max Meadows tectonic breccia. Structural analyses indicate that deformation in the broken-formations is Alleghanian in age and that the deformed zone formed under elastico-frictional conditions, possibly under elevated fluid pressures with temporally variant stresses and that lithology may have played an important role in localizing the broken-formations along the base of the Pulaski sheet. / Ph. D.

The conclusion of this investigation, based on field mapping and measured sections, is the Price Formation was deposited on a high-energy shoreline. Sediments for the shoreline were initially transported from a northern deltaic source. The Cloyd Conglomerate Member represents offshore barrier bars, while the Lower Price unit was deposited in a lagoon behind the bars. At the top of the Lower Price unit, the "marker bed" sandstone includes sedimentary features of marine and fluvial origin. This sandstone is interpreted as a delta-front sand, reworked from distributary mouth bars. The Langhorn and Merrimac coal seams were deposited in swamps formed across the sandstone. / Master of Science

The present educational status of Pulaski County has evolved through more than a century of slow progress. The causes back of the goals gained, whether they be natural consequences as in "the winning of the west," or the result of a brilliant stroke of genius on the part of some indomitable leadership, it is not the purpose of this study to determine. The purpose may be stated thus: (1) To preserve some rare materials in peril of passing into oblivion, such as primitive reports, given by the first trustees, pioneers of the primeval districts; the first notice issued by the commissioners to hold an election; a certificate nearly a century old, and some interesting material found in newspapers; and some verbal accounts. (2) To list and give the date of every commissioner and superintendent who has served as the head of the educational system of the county. (3) To make a record of the epistolary reports of the county superintendents of the different years, since they shed much light on the educational problems of their time. Since the geography of a country has much to do with the economical and social life of a people, and since all are factors in an educational program, the geographical features of the county have been included. An account of the historical background has seemed pertinent to an understanding of the peoples. The Academy Lands have been the most obscure chapter of this work. So far no source material in the form of records is available on the Somerset Academy. So far as known, there has been no written history of education in Pulaski County. The only things that approach it are some articles written by members of the D.A.R., by the Chautauqua Clubs, and by Enos Swain. A brief account of Pulaski County is given in Collins's History. Use has been made of some of this material. Clarice Payne Ramey has written a history of the county, but the writer has not had access to it.

This project examines the activism of Black parents, students, and citizens who fought to obtain school equality and desegregation from the 1920s until the 1960s in southwest Virginia and consequently the resistance from White residents and officials. Resistance to the status quo of inequality between Black and White schools in Pulaski County, Virginia began as early as the 1920s. This activism continued through the 1930s and 1940s, with it finally leading NAACP attorneys Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson collaborating with Pulaski citizens in 1948 to file a discrimination lawsuit in the case Corbin v. School Board of Pulaski County. The activism did not end here as once the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schools were unconstitutional, Black residents in southwest Virginia localities such as Floyd, Galax, Grayson, and Pulaski worked together with NAACP attorney Reuben Lawson to file multiple lawsuits so Black students could attend White schools. Many of these lawsuits faced staunch resistance from White residents of these localities, even with the threat of closing schools due to Virginia's policy of Massive Resistance. I argue that looking at localities such as Pulaski, Floyd, Galax, and Grayson helps situate southwest Virginia into the larger context of Virginia history in terms of examining resistance, fighting for equality, and pushing desegregation in the area during the middle of the twentieth century. Black citizens in the western part of Virginia faced resistance from the White citizens, but they persevered with their activism in the courts and hometowns which ultimately contributed to the dismantling of segregated schools in Virginia. They pushed for equality within segregation and then for desegregation in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Examining the historiography of school equality and desegregation in Virginia demonstrates that there is an overgeneralization about the resistance which occurred in the western half of the state. Historians argue that the eastern part of the state saw more modes of resistance, especially Massive Resistance, due to the higher population of Black residents. On the other hand, they ignore the western part as they believe the same resistance did not occur due to a lower population of Black residents. I reject these notions as Massive Resistance found its way into southwest Virginia through either the threat of or action of closing schools. I have dug more deeply into the sources, such as trial transcripts, legal correspondence, school board records, petitions, court cases, testimony, newspapers, and oral histories to understand the avenues Black residents in southwest Virginia used to fight inequality and segregation. / Master of Arts / This project examines the activism of Black parents, students, and citizens who fought to obtain school equality and desegregation from the 1920s until the 1960s in southwest Virginia and consequently the resistance from White residents and officials. Resistance to the status quo of inequality between Black and White schools in Pulaski County, Virginia began as early as the 1920s. This activism continued through the 1930s and 1940s, with it finally leading NAACP attorneys Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson collaborating with Pulaski citizens in 1948 to file a discrimination lawsuit in the case Corbin v. School Board of Pulaski County. The activism did not end here as once the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schools were unconstitutional, Black residents in southwest Virginia localities such as Floyd, Galax, Grayson, and Pulaski worked together with NAACP attorney Reuben Lawson to file multiple lawsuits so Black students could attend White schools. Many of these lawsuits faced staunch resistance from White residents of these localities, even with the threat of closing schools due to Virginia's policy of Massive Resistance. I argue that looking at localities such as Pulaski, Floyd, Galax, and Grayson helps situate southwest Virginia into the larger context of Virginia history in terms of examining resistance, fighting for equality, and pushing desegregation in the area during the middle of the twentieth century. Black citizens in the western part of Virginia faced resistance from the White citizens, but they persevered with their activism in the courts and hometowns which ultimately contributed to the dismantling of segregated schools in Virginia. They pushed for equality within segregation and then for desegregation in the middle decades of the twentieth century.

The Big Walker Mountain-Crockett Cove area lies in the Valley and Ridge province of southwestern Virginia and is made up of Middle Cambrian-Lower Mississippian strata which are exposed in two separate northeast-trending strike belts. The area is bounded on the northwest by the northwestern limb of the Greendale syncline which has been overridden from the southeast by rocks of the Saltville block. The northeast-trending Saltville thrust probably dips less than 25° in the area near Bland, Virginia, where Middle Ordovician rocks are exposed in a fenster. The rocks exposed in the fenster are probably part of the northwest limb or near-trough portion of the Greendale syncline. The major structure of the Saltville block is the walker Mountain homocline which has subsidiary folds that plunge eastward into a much larger structure - the Blacksburg synclinorium - which is located just east of the area studied. The Saltville block is broken at its southern limit in most of the area by the Tract Mountain reverse fault which essentially parallels the trace of the Saltville fault. Stratigraphic displacement along the Tract Mountain fault decreases from a maximum of about 8,000 feet near its southwestern terminus where the Pulaski block overrides it from the south,to less than 1,000 feet nearly 18 miles away at the eastern border of the area studied. The Tract Mountain block, which is bounded on the northwest by the Tract Mountain fault, is made up of a series of northeast-trending folds which plunge eastward toward the Blacksburg synclinorium. Mapping of the Tract Mountain block and stratigraphic studies of two of its larger folds, the Crockett Cove anticline and the adjacent Queens Knob syncline, show that there is no appreciable thickness or lithologic change in Middle Cambrian-Lower Ordovician rocks between syncline and anticline. However, the basal Champlainian Series in the more southern fold, the Queens Knob syncline, has an aggregate thickness of about 4,400 feet, whereas the same interval near the crest of the Crockett Cove anticline is less than 2,000 feet thick. Most of the beds present near the trough of the syncline are markedly more clastic and less pure than the corresponding beds on the crest of the adjacent anticline which is less than 2.5 miles up structure to the north. Based on this evidence, it is concluded that the present structural axes are identical to axes of maximum and minimum differential subsidence of the sea floor during Middle Ordovician-Late Silurian time. The synclinal trough was the site of maximum subsidence and the anticlinal axis was the site of minimum subsidence. The date of inception of these two folds must correspond to the beginning of pronounced vertical movement of the sea floor which started in early Champlainian time. The anticline which must have at one time lay adjacent to and southeast of the Queens Knob syncline was probably eliminated as a large fault slice during movement along the Pulaski fault that strikes obliquely across the axis of the Queens Knob syncline, which is the southernmost structural element of the Tract Mountain block. The leading edge of the Pulaski block forms the southern border of the Big walker Mountain-Crockett Cove area.which contains approximately 160 square miles that was mapped on a scale of 2 inches to the mile. / Ph. D.