Vacant school building in Georgia

Sumner High School, Sumner Georgia

Date added: July 11, 2023 Categories: Georgia School

The Sumner High School was the first consolidated white high school for this portion of Worth County, one of the county's four consolidated school districts, showing the state's movement toward better education by creating regional schools. Home economics and agricultural practices were taught at the school. The agriculture students would learn about farm production using conventional and experimental crop techniques, and home economics students would center their projects on their family's homes. As a result of the interaction between the school and home, a strong relationship formed between the two.

During its first year, the school had eleven teachers and 374 white students. Sumner High School was considered to be one of the best accredited high schools in southern Georgia. It continued as a high school until 1960, when further consolidation merged all the high schools into that of the county seat of Sylvester. In that same year, Sumner High School was renamed Sumner Elementary School and housed grades one through eight. In the fall of 1970, Sumner Elementary School was combined with the local black school, Parker Elementary, to comply with Section VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Sumner High School is a good example of a T-plan school building built with limited funds by the Works Projects Administration (WPA) and as a community landmark building. It was built to be a consolidated high school for white students of one of the county's four districts. This type of school is characteristic of early 20th-century consolidated schools in Georgia. It reflects almost no ornamentation due to limited funds, except for a brick parapet located above the main entrance, but does retain original wood floors, transoms, doors, wainscoting, auditorium seats, and other interior features. The school served as a focal point for many community activities and the auditorium remains the largest county-owned auditorium space.

The school was built due to the federal government's Depression-era building programs. The school was built with $26,250 worth of bonds sold during the Great Depression, and the labor was provided through the Works Projects Administration (WPA).

The city of Sumner, located within the Coastal Plain region of Georgia, developed along the Brunswick and Albany Railroad (now the Seaboard Coast Line) during the early to mid-1870s. The town was named after John C. Sumner, who owned the land near the railroad, and the city charter was signed in 1883. Early community development consisted of sawmills, turpentine stills, mercantile establishments, a post office, a doctor's office, schools, and churches. In 1883, the population of the town was composed of 42 white families and 21 black families. The 1909 census of taxpayers reflected a town of 176 white individuals and 167 black individuals.

The original school in Sumner was constructed in 1882, opened in 1885, and burned in 1895. Smaller schools existed until the construction of the existing Sumner High School in 1938. The school officially opened in the fall of 1939. The school was constructed under the auspices of the Works Projects Administration (WPA) and originally housed grades eight through eleven. The school population, consisting of only white students due to segregation, represented the consolidation of several surrounding schools within the Sumner school district. The curriculum included home economics and agriculture/farm production. The twelfth grade was added to the school in 1952.

At the conclusion of the 1959-1960 academic school year, Sumner High School was consolidated, along with other high schools, into the Worth County High School in Sylvester. Sumner High School was renamed Sumner Elementary and housed academic grades one through eight.

As a result of Section VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, all of Georgia's public schools were required to be desegregated. In the fall of 1970, Parker Elementary, Sumner's black school, was paired with Sumner Elementary. Grades one through four were housed at Parker Elementary and grades five through eight remained at Sumner Elementary. At the beginning of the 1975-1976 academic school year, all students transferred to Parker Elementary.

After the restoration of the Sumner High School auditorium in the early 1980's, it was maintained as a community meeting place. Currently, the school classrooms are vacant and the auditorium is occasionally used for community events. A residence was constructed in 1938 by the local school board for the Sumner High School principal; however, the residence burned and a modern structure is now located on the site. Also, the school was awarded Georgia Heritage 2000 Grant funding in November 1995.

Building Description

The Sumner High School is located in Sumner, a small town located in the southeast portion of Worth County along US 82/SR 50. Within the Sumner city limits, the High School is located east of the center of town.

The Sumner High School is a one-story, T-plan, brick-veneer building with exposed rafter tails built in 1938-1939. The windows have been boarded; however, a historic photograph illustrates that the windows were double-hung with twelve-over-twelve lights, and most of these survive intact under the plywood enclosures. The front entrance is marked by the major distinctive architectural feature of the building, a parapet. The school building has had no additions.

The interior of the school has remained intact. The front entrance is located in the center, entering into a cross hall with classrooms on the front side of the hall. A science room and library are located on the other side of the hall. The auditorium is located directly across from the main entrance to complete the T-plan shape of the building. The school building retains its original floors, transoms, wainscoting, doors, windows, auditorium seats, and light fixtures.

The school sits on a large lot that contains two auxiliary buildings built at a later date: a cafeteria/canning plant (1959), and a small schoolhouse (1962). There are houses across the street and a city park to the northeast. The gym (1954) is south of the school but has been sold to private owners. The high school is vacant; however, the auditorium is used occasionally for community events. The school building is in fair to good condition.