The Pleasant View Explosion

In 1948, six one-room schoolhouses (Pleasant View, Stormer, Cottonwood, Green Ridge, Franklin, and Jefferson) consolidated to form Pleasant View District #622.  Plans were made to construct a school building about one mile south and one mile east of Washington.  As winter turned to spring in 1949, work was heavy to prepare for opening in the fall.  Contracting work fell to Willis Hett of Washington, with the masonry work being done by John Scheerer, also of Washington.  Layford Wright, a nearby farmer, served as a watchman for the site.  He would check the site during off hours and light up the site at night.

On a beautiful spring morning, April 9, 1949, Wright went to turn the lights off at the site around 5:30 am and returned to his nearby farm.  He had just returned home when a tremendous explosion occurred at the building site.  He may have been there when the blast happened if he had done his normal chores at the site instead of simply turning off the lights.  The sound from the explosion was reportedly heard ten miles away.  It ripped over 50 feet of brick wall off the structure and blew a hole several feet deep in the ground.  This was no firecracker.  Authorities immediately suspected foul play.  The Tazewell County Sheriff and the FBI were called in.

Fifty-two windows in the Wright home just south of the school were shattered.  The blast even broke many of their flower pots and dishes.  Hett replaced the windows in the days following the blast.

It was speculated that someone with great knowledge of explosives committed this act, as it seemed the device was on a delay.  Also, the phone wires to the building were cut to hinder immediate communication.

The damage delayed the construction of the school for about a month, but it was still ready for students in August 1949.

The perpetrators were never caught.  The most common speculation is that Hett's labor difficulties with some of his employees led to this retributive act.