Abandoned school in Kentucky
Verona High School, Verona Kentucky
Verona High School was built in 1914-1915. The earlier Verona school was located on another site within the community. Beginning in 1908, the Kentucky Legislature instituted a series of educational reforms which would alter forever the character of Boone County's educational patterns and would result in an overall county-wide elevation of educational standards. On May, 1914, a local referendum was held on the question of building a high school. One hundred forty-one voters favored the construction of a new building, while sixty opposed the project. A 2.86-acre building site was acquired from O. K. Whitson for $600.00. The architect for the new building has not been identified, but it is known that bids for the construction of the new school were opened on August 22, 1914, and that the contract was awarded to George P. Nicholson of Walton, at a contract price of $10,090. The new Verona High School opened in September 1915, under the supervision of principal Miss Nannie Hamilton. The building housed grades one through twelve from the 1915 school year until 1935, when the Verona and Walton school districts merged, creating the consolidated Walton-Verona District. Following the 1954 construction of the present Walton-Verona High School in Walton, the Verona High School building was converted to an elementary school; it was abandoned following construction of the new Walton-Verona Elementary School in 1971 and has been vacant since that time.
Verona High School is one of several historic school buildings in the county that are significant because
of their association with educational reform in Boone County during the early twentieth century. These
reforms, initiated on the state level, included the consolidation of local schools and the establishment of high schools.
During the second half of the nineteenth century, rural Kentucky was served by one-room schoolhouses,
which typically housed grades one through four. An 1880s report of the School Commissioner noted that the
county's educational system consisted of forty-six individual districts served by one building each. The report
noted that thirty-four of these facilities were of wood construction, two were of brick, and seven were built
of logs. The report also included a valuation of the school buildings, and all seven log facilities were valued
at an aggregate total of $60.00. The primitive condition of Kentucky's schools was believed by many to
hamper the educational process and the Recorder editorialized,
In addition to dilapidated buildings, poor pay and inadequate training discouraged Kentucky teachers. Moreover, parent apathy led to low rates of student attendance, particularly during harvest and during periods of inclement weather. The Recorder chastised such parents: "There are hundreds of well-meaning but thoughtless country people who require their children to work on the farm when they ought to be in school, thus robbing them of the inestimable benefit of a good education." Such children "suffer an incalculable loss" and enter adult life "obliged to knock about the world doing the drudgery of [their) former companions, looked upon as a sort of ignoramus incapable of using his [sic] best energies."
By the early years of the twentieth century, educators were becoming alarmed by the deplorable state
of education in Kentucky. In 1908, John Crabbe, the state's newly-elected Superintendent of Public Instruction,
led a vigorous campaign for the improvement of education. In the legislative session following Crabbe's
election,
In the wake of these reforms, the system of one-room schoolhouse-based education began its transformation. Minuscule and outdated facilities were consolidated into newer, larger buildings that served wider geographical areas. Increased funding, improved teacher training, and better facilities began to lead to improvements in the overall quality of education. "Gradually more than 8,000 dilapidated one-room schoolhouses surrendered to consolidation and settled into the obliterating dust of decay or became even shabbier tenant houses and hay mows." School consolidation in Boone County began with the dawn of the twentieth century and was spurred by Crabbe's reform legislation. The Walton-Verona Independent School District, which incorporated several smaller, rural districts, was established c. 1900; 1908 saw the merger of Florence District 118 and Pleasant Ridge District 119.
Access to secondary education was also an important component of school reform. During the nineteenth century in many rural areas of Kentucky, students desiring a high school education had to pay tuition and board away from home. In 1902 a new graded school, which included the county's first public high school, opened in Walton. Boone County High School, located in Burlington, opened in 1910. Verona High School, dating from 1914, was considered one of the best. In Belleview, Petersburg, and Florence, schools were constructed which housed grades one through twelve in the same facility. The Petersburg Graded School is owned by the County and its future is uncertain. Belleview School has been seriously altered.
Since some consolidated schools were no longer within walking distance for all students, transportation became an issue within the context of Kentucky education. In 1912, the Legislature enacted legislation empowering county boards of education to establish boundaries for school districts and to levy taxes for student transportation. While some districts chose to provide for student transportation, others did not. In Boone County, the practice of busing students from outlying areas to a central school began in 1913 when the Petersburg Graded School initiated bus service for students from the former Berkshire and Terrell districts. Verona High School became a magnet for students from rural areas; pupils from neighboring counties even commuted by train and received their education at Verona.
Building Description
The Verona High School is a two-story vernacular brick school building, rectilinear in form, with a seven-bay facade and a flat roof.
The school employs a functional design, with little reference to any formal architectural style, yet it is the most physically-imposing edifice in the Boone County village of Verona. The overall appearance of the building is similar to that employed for other schools built in Boone County in the early years of the twentieth century, including those erected at Walton and Petersburg. Simple and symmetrical in its massing, the Verona High School stands two full stories above a raised basement. The seven-bay facade incorporates an extended entry pavilion with a centered opening that contains double wood doors incorporating solid lower panels and glazed upper panels. Above the doorway is a rectangular sandstone tablet bearing the inscription, "VERONA HIGH SCHOOL" and the date, "1914." The rear elevation is six bays in width, with little ornamentation. The building's flat roof is concealed behind a somewhat deteriorated low parapet of brick and concrete; a modest, unornamented and partially deteriorated metal cornice extends around the perimeter of the building. Fenestration is flat-topped, with windows set on stone sills and capped with stone lintels. Modern replacement sash have been installed in some of the original openings, while other windows have been boarded over. The replacement windows fill the original openings completely and do not seriously detract from the overall physical integrity of the building.
The interior of the school is deteriorated and has been heavily vandalized, but nonetheless retains much of its overall plan and massing, incorporating two restrooms and a cafeteria in the basement, four classrooms on the first story, and an assembly roof and offices on the second. The main entry doors open into an abbreviated entrance hall which leads to a broad transverse hallway lined with classrooms. Some wood trim, including modest baseboards and four-panel doors, remain intact, along with several blackboards. The interior wall and ceiling surfaces are plastered.
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