Old school building in Kentucky

Jenkins School, Jenkins Kentucky

Date added: April 01, 2023 Categories: Kentucky School

Northwest facade (front) with surrounding site looking northeast (2010)

Jenkins School was the largest and finest school to be produced as part of the efforts by Consolidated Coal Company to develop Jenkins, a coal camp, in the coal rich mountains of eastern Kentucky. As coal companies looked to begin mining the coal found in the remote parts of eastern Kentucky, they could see the benefit of providing amenities to their workers. This led some coal corporations to develop coal towns with one or more of the following amenities: churches, schools, stores, a bakery, butcher, entertainment venues, dormitories, bathhouses, a hospital, and hotels. Jenkins was considered one of the crown jewels of coal towns, Consolidation Coal Company would bring politicians and visitors from all around the United States and abroad to see their accomplishments in this Letcher County settlement. Jenkins' outstanding school building signaled the quality of the town. Many of its graduates went to college, and the school was expanded several times while under Company control.

Because the school was owned by a company, there was little publically accessible archival information available about the building's early life. The local library yielded little information regarding the school, aside from mentions of it when describing the development of the city. The main source of information regarding the school's history comes from two documents: a non-academic publication produced by the local Jaycees organization called "The History of Jenkins, KY" which contains transcribed interviews, amateur histories, and a short article about the school's history, and a video, "The Birth of a Coal Mining Town: Jenkins, Kentucky," which documents how the city evolved from a rough wilderness area into a prosperous coal town that was considered one of the finest company towns in the country. The second resource appears to be produced by an organization with pro-coal interests, though there is not excessive editorializing.

Although many coal towns have been abandoned or demolished, Jenkins continues to remain a respectable city; it does not appear to have suffered as much from poverty and unemployment as some other coal towns in eastern Kentucky. The area continues to be a city which relies on the coal industry, and the people who live in Jenkins seem to have a positive perspective when discussing the coal industry, despite the industry having a reputation outside the region for preying on workers, causing health and safety issues, and causing some of the nation's worst poverty by halting operations in different cities around the region. The pride that citizens have in their city and the lack of neglect of the structures in the city could be attributed to the legacy of having been one of the nicest coal camps of its time (being in fact a "model town") and the resourceful "do it yourself" mentality that has always been a part of the Eastern Kentucky persona.

The city of Jenkins, Kentucky is one of the best examples of a city created solely to support the coal mining corporation which established it, and was considered a model coal industry town. Cities like Jenkins were not developed as towns in other regions of the country had been, i.e., organically and over time. Instead, these coal towns were created quickly by a corporation for the purpose of creating a livable environment for workers and their families. The corporation would build homes, at the very least, adding sufficiently few accessories found in conventional towns, as made economic sense). The company could control every aspect of the workers' lives in the town, even going as far as developing their own currency (or scrip) which could not be used outside of the camp, to ensure that the company could recover wages at a company-owned store serving a captive clientele. This made leaving the coal camp difficult as savings were hard to compile with a large portion of pay being in scrip, which was useless outside the camp's company-owned stores and had no cash value.

Consolidation Coal Company, later rename CONSOL Energy, began in 1860 when several western Maryland coal companies consolidated to form one of the largest coal companies of that time. Though the company did not actually start working as a corporation until 1864 due to the Civil War, their early foothold in the Northeast's energy market was a key to becoming a one of the most prominent coal companies of the era. By 1870 the company owned nearly all of the mines in the western Maryland region, and soon had the US federal government buying most of its coal for rail transit from Consolidation. The company first moved into Kentucky with the acquisition of the acreage in and around Jenkins in 1911. In 1927, Consolidation became the largest coal producer in the United States, due in large part to the huge seams they owned in Kentucky and West Virginia. The company is still the largest bituminous coal producer in the United States, and is the largest coal producer east of the Mississippi. The company has the largest coal reserves in the United States and has diversified business into natural gas, industrial supplies and real estate.

The city of Jenkins began as an enterprise of the Consolidation Coal Company, which acquired 101,000 acres of land in Letcher County, Kentucky in April of 1911 and founded a city named after one of the company's top executive officers, George Jenkins (The Birth of Coal Mining Town, Jenkins, KY). The company began to develop the rugged area on the backs of mules and oxen which carried all of the heavy mining and construction equipment over the mountains until the railroad could be completed. In order to house the workers in the area and the future miners, Consolidation built multiple duplexes and established Jenkins as the main city for the company mines and smaller camps in the area. The area grew rapidly, as large seams of the bituminous coal were uncovered, helping to propel Consolidation Coal Company to be the largest producer of coal by 1927. In the first two years after arriving in Jenkins, Consolidation built a company warehouse, a large office building, a company store, a hospital, a hotel, a church, a Young Men's Christian Association, and the Jenkins School. Homes were built in the steeper areas so that the flatter land where little excavation would be required could be reserved for the larger buildings that served the company and community. Bricks for these buildings were produced at Brickyard Hill, a nearby clay-rich area and kiln, wood was supplied by the surrounding old growth forests then milled at 9 newly built sawmills, and the limestone used for foundations, ornamentation sills and lintels was quarried from Wheaton Hollow.

The Sandy Valley and Elkhorn Railway Company, which owned the tracks nearest Jenkins and was owned by the Consolidation Coal Company during Jenkins first few decades, extended rail service to the town of Jenkins beginning in 1912 to haul off the coal mined in the region. ("The Birth of Coal Mining Town, Jenkins, KY"). The original line was from Glamorgan, Virginia from the Wise Terminal through the Shelby Gap; the original track was narrow gauge to accelerate railroad construction, but the track was soon after was upgraded to standard gauge once the city was ready to begin mining operations (Jenkins Area Jaycees, "A Social and Economic Study of Jenkins."). The railroad, named after two rivers in the region, is no longer in service today, but originally had tracks that ran through downtown Jenkins, parallel to Main Street. In fact, there is an old storehouse which was part of the original rail service across Main Street opposite the school, in addition to the public Library which is in the form of a traditional train Depot. By 1935 the railroad had been purchased by the Baltimore & B.O. Railroad Company (Baltimore & O. R. Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue), which gave the region access to additional markets which likely allowed Consolidation Coal Company to be even more successful in Jenkins. Given that the coal from Jenkins was some of the most desirable, this access likely helped to propel Consolidation to the place it holds in the industry today.

Central to all of this development was the institution that children had contact with every day and was a necessary amenity for attracting families to the area: the school. Jenkins school was originally built as the coal company's central school in 1911 and opened in 1912. In its first year, the school system, which encompassed smaller schools in McRoberts, Burdine, Fleming, and Neon in addition to the large school at Jenkins, enrolled 490 students at both the elementary and high school levels (Jenkins Area Jaycees, "Jenkins Independent School District"). The Jenkins School also served as the central school for a system that incorporated much smaller satellite schools in Burdine, Dunham, and Fleming-Neon (also in Letcher County). Even today, the new Jenkins High School serves those areas as a city school system, despite much of the state of Kentucky having trended towards county schools.

Similar smaller cities were created by Consolidation and other mining companies in areas such as Haymond, Hemphill, McRoberts, Millstone, Seco, Whitesburg, and Blackey (all in Kentucky). Jenkins was considered by many as the best camp in the region, both due to the quality of life there and the quality of the bituminous coal that lay underground; in fact, it was not uncommon for coal companies unfamiliar with the region to visit Jenkins to see an example of how their own future camps could prosper. In fact, the local Consolidation offices would bring its inspection teams, the press and dignitaries to Jenkins to inspect the mines there rather than those in the camps outfitted with less glamorous buildings.

One support for Jenkins' claim to be one of the finest coal camps in Kentucky was its school, recognized not only a top notch physical plant, but as strong an educational facility. The majority of graduates would go on to college at the urging of their instructors, and the school's sports teams, and marching band were well known; former long-time superintendent C.V. Snapp touted the schools prominence often, and hired the best teachers from what is today Berea College and Eastern Kentucky University. The success and expansion of the town was shown in the school's expansion. The additions more than doubled the number of classrooms and provided a gymnasium for both the community and school to use. The school system's enrollment peaked at 3000 during the final boom years of the Consolidation era. The building was turned over to the local school board in 1947, when Consolidation Coal Company sold the town to the public and halted mining operations as it transitioned the mines to another company's holdings.

The Jenkins School building, which is now controlled by a non-profit organization dedicated to the building's preservation, has had some historic fabric removed. Due to a long period of neglect, many leaks occurred in the building causing substantial plaster damage and some woodwork problems. In addition, the original wood windows were replaced with the existing vinyl windows; the replacement windows do appear to mimic the design and pattern of the original windows. The site itself has not substantially changed; the only changes have been to provide handicapped access to the building and the two additions to the building, both of which are historic. There is a small senior center currently in the building which has finished out three of the former classrooms but has not altered the building other than finish work.

Building Description

The Jenkins School is a 2½-story masonry building opened in 1912 and located along Main Street in Jenkins, Kentucky, situated in the coal-rich mountains of Letcher County. The school building as it is today consists of the original building and two additions; one addition houses additional classrooms with a gymnasium and stage area, and a second addition provides additional classrooms. The building is situated up on a hill overlooking the rest of the downtown area, which follows Main Street at the bottom of a valley. The school is located in a mixed use area, with residential buildings on one side, a library, church and retail establishments located on the other.

Jenkins, Kentucky is situated in a valley in the Appalachian Mountains. It has a linear narrow town form, organized around Main Street. The town was erected at once by its owner, Consolidation Coal Company, beginning in 1911. Richard Francaviglia observes in Hard Places: Reading the Landscape of America's Historic Mining Districts, it is very typical for a mining town to occupy a tight site, giving minimal area to lawns, displaying a very dense urban building pattern, despite a situation within a very remote area. Jenkins follows and exhibits these trends in coal company towns in its own design. With buildable area at a premium, the school building lacked a large school yard. The school's planners had the foresight to allow some room on the site for expansion, which the additions largely cover.

The school building faces North West and sits on a small hill above Main Street behind a stone retaining wall. Pane Street runs immediately along the rear of the building and serves as an access to several residential streets and proceeds as an alley/access road into the commercial portion of the city. The southwest side of the building is bordered by the commercial portion of the town and the opposite side of Main Street features a number of public and retail entities.

The site of the school is a hillside that rises up from Main Street. The retaining wall appears to be original to the property. Rising from street level, it reduces the slope of the land in front of the school. There is no vegetation on the site aside from a small grass lawn that runs from the street to the front of the building. The building has a half basement which looks out over Main Street on the front of the building and out into light wells along the rear facade of the building. The site is approximately one acre and the only changes on the site are the two additions that flank the original structure, and handicapped access points at the rear side of the building.

Immediately to the left and rear of the school building are residential areas, and to the right of the school building is a church, which is also one of the original structures built by Consolidation Coal Company. Elsewhere nearby, the town is fairly well kept; though few commercial structures remain which are original to the city, buildings along Main Street have been updated and new construction, infill and redevelopment has occurred.

The Jenkins School consists of the original 1912 building, a 1924 addition with four classrooms and gymnasium, and a 1936 addition with additional classrooms and funded by WPA. Both additions maintain the school's original Colonial Revival style.

The School has a limestone foundation and load bearing brick walls in a running bond pattern with limestone lintels and sills. There is a stone water table over the half basement, also of limestone, and the building rises up two additional stories in brick. The building displays little applied ornamentation. The parapet rises above a small geison with built in box gutter and hides a flat roof that slopes slightly to the rear of the building. There is a tall square brick chimney that rises from the rear portion of the building, presumably from the boiler.

The front and rear facades exhibit a great deal of openings, many of which house one-over-one sash windows likely used en masse to provide natural light instead of taxing the hydroelectric power station that served the entire city. All original wood windows in the building have been replaced with vinyl windows, but the replacement windows look similar to the original window as seen in historic photos of the building. The replacement windows also appear to have the same operation. The historic stone lintels and sills remain in place. The gymnasium also has had its windows replaced, but given that the fenestration pattern is different on this portion of the building, it is not clear if the replacement windows are in a pattern that follows the pattern of the original windows. In each side is a large single window of 6 lights, three-by-three in orientation, flanked on each side by rectangular panels made of raised bricks with a cross pattern in the center. Several one-over-one windows are found in the ground floor level within the stone foundation.

There are entrances to the building on all four sides, though the back entrances take on a more secondary or service appearance. The two entrances on the front of the building and the two at grade on either side of the building are obviously the primary entrances. These more significant entrances are comprised of a stone landing that projects from the face of the building with small hipped roof porticos over both the landing and the stairs that lead up to them. At the rear of the building there is decidedly less ornamentation and new approaches to the original openings have been added to the building for both egress and handicapped accessibility. A small parking area has been developed behind the school along Pane Street for those making use of this new rear entrance.

The interior of the building is in poor condition cosmetically, but the majority of the building is structurally stable. Much of the plaster in the building has fallen and has been removed from the building, leaving only exposed brick in many portions. Although the building has been cared for recently, the building was looted for its Chestnut paneling in the hallways (Chestnut lumber is no longer available in the United States due to a fungus which caused the trees to almost completely disappear in this country), and a poorly executed attempt at placing an elevator in the building has caused some damage to interior walls. Although there is some woodwork missing, a large portion of interior woodwork remains intact as well as the original wood flooring and staircases in the building. The building plan is also still in its original configuration with the exception of where the aforementioned elevator shaft was constructed in the building.

The building does have some slight elevation changes, navigated by stairs, between the original building and the first addition. In this area, flooring and woodwork vary slightly but overall the addition is not obviously different and has similar mass, scale and corridor rhythm as the original building. In the second addition, some changes can be seen. The classroom entries are on a diagonal to the hallway rather than being parallel to the hallways and the trim changes as well. This area is easier to determine to be an addition, but the interior architecture in no way detracts from the original and was sympathetic to the other two portions of the building.

The original building and the first addition take on an appearance on the interior which is typical for schools of the era. The floor plan is a double loaded corridor with no lockers and exits located at either end of the hallways. The new addition, however, did have locker space, the entrances are articulated differently, and, though still a double loaded corridor, takes on a different rhythm than the other portions of the building.

The gymnasium addition is in fair shape despite years of neglect and vacancy. Similar to other portions of the building, windows in this portion have been replaced with a vinyl window, though it is unclear whether these windows match the original. The structure of the gymnasium appears to be beams created by laminated lumber spans that terminate at the load bearing walls. The gym also has a balcony and stage, neither of which is in good condition. There is a great deal of damaged plaster in the gym. The bleachers in the gymnasium are small and run along the walls beneath the windows, and the basketball court is not of standard regulation size. There are exterior entrances that lead from the gymnasium to Pane Street. The stage is in poor condition as the roof over the stage had a substantial leak and caused most of the plaster backstage to fall as well as some damage to the wood in and around the stage.