The little white frame school building that you passed three miles before your reached the HPNAP parking lot was officially known as Northumberland County Public School #8 (White), and was used from 1906 to 1929. Earlier school buildings preceded it. A few elderly area citizens, with names like Harding, Ball, Hudnall, Luttrell, Kent, Blackwell, and Conley, can still remember attending or teaching school there. The County Historical Society possesses the October, 1904 “Daily Record of Pupils,” 13 in number, ages 7-16, signed by their teacher, Jessie Ball. This young teacher later married the chemical magnate Alfred DuPont, and in her later years became the great benefactor of schools and churches in this area. More of her story is told on the placard mounted at the entrance to HPNAP.

The 1906 schoolhouse, owned by Northumberland Preservation, Inc. (NPI), is located on Diller’s Corner (the intersection of Shiloh School Road and Balls Neck Road) in the beautiful countryside of Northumberland County.  Shiloh School is the last unaltered example of the one room schools that were built
throughout Northumberland County in the early days of public education. It is sited on a one acre plot of land deeded to the Wicomico Magisterial School in 1905 by farmer Diller. Officially known as Public School #8, Shiloh School, was built of lumber cut and milled on the Diller Farm in the summer of 1906 by local men whose children would be educated there. One of the unusual features of the school is its side gabled structure and the exterior style construction of its interior chimney. The school is clad in pine weatherboard and has the metal clad roof common in the early 1900s. Shiloh School served the children of the area until it was replaced by a new, larger school at Wicomico Church in 1929. From then until it was given to NPI in 1987 by James and Emily Hudnall, the old school was used as a farm storage building.

Thanks to the efforts of the NPI Volunteers Shiloh School has been extensively restored  to its original configuration. The volunteers work continuously to maintain its structural integrity of this Northumberland Landmark. Due to the efforts of NPI,  Shiloh School is registered as a Historic Virginia Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Schedule improvements to the site include digging a shallow well, installing sanitary facilities and the installation of a cast iron propane stove. With these improvements NPI hopes to be able to provide a meeting place for local nonprofit groups in the area.  NPI welcomes and encourages local nonprofit, environmental, conservation, naturalist, historic and school organizations to visit and use their facility. To date the Shiloh School has been used by the Northern Neck Land Conservancy, the Northern Neck RiverRide Cyclists and Lancaster Primary School.

The entire Balls Neck Area recalls rural heritage and history. The surrounding open space is unspoiled farm and forest, with ever changing colors of the season. Two Virginia Natural Area Preserves on the Cheaspeake Bay, Dameron Marsh (316 acres) to the north and Hughlett Point (204 acres) to the south, can be accessed from the school via Balls Neck Road. The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, plus volunteers from the area, welcome interested visitors, family groups and organizationsto schedule guided tours and walks: however, anyone may walk these areas at any time, during normal daylight hours. Brochures for self guided tours of the preserves are being developed and should soon be available.