Vardy is named after Vardemon Collins. Vardemon was a Melungeon and his descendants and a few other Melungeons make up the majority population in Vardy Valley. Melungeons are a mixed ethnic group of people of unknown origin. – Some, based on DNA research, indicated they came from northern European, Native American, Mediterranean (Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, etc.), African, and Asian heritage.

The Northern Presbyterian Mission Church established a mission in the Vardy Valley. Chester F. Leonard, the Minister of the Presbyterian Church, his father and the community, built the Vardy Community School in 1920-29. A lot of the material was brought to Ben Hur, Virginia on the train and on to Vardy by horse and wagon. The people in the community provided a lot of the lumber that was sawed in the valley.

Vardy Community School building consists of three stories and thirteen rooms. There were three main classrooms and an assembly room that seated about 150 people on the middle floor. The lower floor housed the shop where Father Leonard taught manual Training to the upper grade boys. The library was also on the lower floor, which was used for a classroom also. The third floor had the dining room, home economic department, museum, the infirmary and living quarters for Father and Mother Leonard.
Father and Mother Leonard taught there along with the other teachers. Mother taught home economics plus supervised the school food service program.
The school was one of the best in the South. Individualized instruction was used in most of the teaching. Students progressed at their own pace. The Geography, History, Bible and Health classes were all illustrated and accompanied with slides and filmstrips. There were movies at night for entertainment. Now remember this all was taking place in the 30's.
Miss Rankin was from Scotland with a nursing degree and a master's degree in education. She delivered all the babies in the community and conducted home health visits.