Old School in TN, now demolished

Huntsville High School, Huntsville Tennessee

Date added: August 28, 2023

Categories:
Tennessee
School

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The Huntsville High School was established in 1908 by the state legislature. A wooden frame building was erected on the site purchased for school purposes near the Town of Huntsville. The original school had four classrooms and housed both the high school and elementary grades. Initially, there were approximately 125 students, 25 in high school. In 1917 more rooms were added to the original building and a large co-educational dormitory (non-extant) was constructed in order to accommodate more students in a planned effort to make Huntsville High School a fully accredited four-year high school. In 1921, under the supervision of Principal C. W. Wright who oversaw the change from a two-year to a four-year high school, the first students to complete the four-year course of study graduated. In the early years the school functioned as an independent school under a special act of the legislature but after several years was taken over by a Scott County school system. In 1929 the school expanded with the construction of a wooden frame, dome-roofed gymnasium (non-extant) built near the school.

On February 5^th, 1931, the Tennessee Legislature passed a bill and Governor Horton signed it into law authorizing the construction of a new elementary and high school in Huntsville, not to exceed a cost of $75,000. The new school was to replace the old frame building which was "entirely inadequate to care for the high school as it should be taken care of." A Huntsville High School Building Board was established to plan and carry out construction of the new facility. The board was composed of U. E. Jeffers, chairman; 0O. Earl Byrd, secretary; William York; E. G. Foster; and Howard H. Baker. The board hired Clem H. Meyer, an architect from Knoxville who had designed several other schools and public institutions, to design the school. The contracting firm of Cook and Elliot was hired to build the structure.

The new school building was completed in the summer of 1932 and was put into service in the fall of the same year. This building and its prospectus were enough to excite the whole academic community in the area. The dedication was held on September 9^th, 1932, and the new facility was reportedly "the best building of its kind in any town the size of Huntsville in the entire state." This facility served Huntsville and the surrounding rural community as both elementary and high school until 1971 when the new comprehensive central high school was completed. Since 1971 the facility has been the Huntsville Middle School housing grades 5 through 8. An elementary school was constructed nearby to house the lower grades.

The Huntsville High School building is an excellent example of a rural community school that has served both the educational and social needs of the community. Although the building is fairly plain in ornamentation, the central entrance reflects the Collegiate Gothic Revival style, a style that was extremely popular in academic buildings. The small school with its detailed attention to the brickwork, its stylistic entrance, and unique floor plan distinguishes Huntsville High School from other high schools of similar size. No other school with this type of floor plan has been identified in Tennessee.

Building Description

The Huntsville High School is a two-story, brick building located on East Main Street in Huntsville, Scott County, Tennessee. The school is situated on a fairly large campus located at the base of the mountains. The high school was constructed between 1931 and 1932 and is an irregularly shaped building with a flat-based V-plan configuration with an attached rectangular-shaped auditorium in the center of the open space formed by the V. Two later additions are connected to either end of the building by small corridors.

The high school is constructed of a light brown, rough texture brick with cream-colored brick used as a decorative accent to outline the window sills, window spandrels, and string course above the second-story windows, the segmentally arched secondary entrances, water table, and roof coping. The brick pattern used on the school is a five-row common bond, with a variety of decorative brick patterns on the window spandrels and on the pilasters. Pilasters on the school building are surmounted by precast concrete caps.

All the windows in the original section of the school are multi-paned, metal sash with two sections that open; one three-pane section and one six-pane section.

The main entrance of the school is located in the center of the south, or main, facade. The Collegiate Gothic-style entrance projects out from the main wall of the building and is slightly taller than the rest of the building. The double-leaf entry with sidelights and multi-paned round-arched transom is located within a recessed, round-arched entryway. The center bay of the entryway is composed of precast concrete, concrete block, and white glazed terra cotta. The name HUNTSVILLE HIGH SCHOOL is inscribed in a tablet located over a bank of six windows. Flanking the center entrance bay are two narrower bays composed of single windows on each story, set in a two-story, round-arched recessed panel. The roof line above the center entrance is crenelated. Flanking the entrance are the original metal wall lanterns with translucent colored glass.

The symmetrical wings of the school are identical and use minimal decorative features composed primarily of the window bays, Pilasters, and brick patterns. The school auditorium is located at the rear of the school in the space created by the wings. The auditorium is a simple rectangular-shaped section with a low-pitch gable roof. Cream-colored brick accentuates the water table and the single-leaf, segmentally arched rear exit. The east and west sides of the auditorium are composed of three large multi-paned windows that extend almost the entire height from floor to ceiling. The northernmost window on the east side extends to the ground level and contains a multi-paned glass door.

In 1949 two additions were added to the original school building. The additions are separate buildings constructed of red brick and attached to the original high school by one-story corridors. The west addition, or the gymnasium, is a simple brick, rectangular building with a gable roof. Located on the south side of the gymnasium is a small attached concrete, concessions stand. The east addition is a brick, two-story, rectangular, flat-roofed building containing the kitchen and cafeteria on the first floor and classrooms on the second floor. The windows of the cafeteria addition are similar to the windows on the original school building.

The interior of the school has remained virtually unchanged over the years. Changes that have occurred in the building were done primarily as safety measures, including the enclosure of the open stairwells, adding more electrical lights, and placing conduits over the wiring. Originally the hallways and the auditorium walls were unpainted brick like the exterior of the building. However, in recent years the interior walls have been painted white. Few changes have occurred within the classrooms, most rooms retain their original plaster walls, chalkboards, and room configuration. Some rooms show evidence of water damage to the plaster. Many of the original suspended globe light fixtures remain and almost all of the classroom doors are the original wood doors with four lights surmounted by a six-light transom. The floors which were originally bare concrete or wood tongue-in-grove flooring are now either covered with carpeting or tile. Changes to the 350-seat auditorium include replacement of the seats and the addition of a suspended, acoustical tile ceiling covering the original exposed steel rafters.

Other buildings on the property include a stone cafeteria built in 1940, a circa 1960 building constructed by the Trades and Industries Department for their classrooms, and a concrete block maintenance building constructed in 1986. The stone cafeteria which later served as the Vocational Agricultural Department is now abandoned. The cafeteria is beginning to deteriorate, several windows are missing and the floor is severely water-damaged.