Pleasant View Community

Pleasant View, in southwestern Frederick County, was established by people formerly enslaved on the nearby Moreland farm. The community developed around institutions that supported education, worship, and community life.

The brick Doubs Colored School was constructed around 1950 on the site of an earlier schoolhouse and was the third school building associated with Pleasant View. It closed in 1965 during the desegregation of Frederick County’s public schools, after which its students transferred to the newly opened Carroll Manor Elementary School.  

Mary Harris, a local historian, educator, and founding member of the African American Resources Cultural and Heritage Society (AARCH), attended Doubs Colored School and later served there as a substitute teacher early in her career. After returning to Frederick County from a teaching assignment on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, she went on to teach at the Maryland School for the Deaf. Her association with the school reflects Pleasant View’s enduring importance in the educational and community life of African Americans in Frederick County.