Can you believe school returns in just a few short weeks? As back-to-school season begins, we look at the history of some of our local schools.
The Sumner County School System was created in 1873. Portland High School opened as Portland Seminary in 1874. The original building burned down in 1897 when a lab experiment conducted by the school’s principal, Professor Z. K. Griffin, caused the fire to break out and destroyed the building. The new building was completed in 1898, and it was named Portland High School in 1910. By 1914, the student body had outgrown the space and a new school was built in 1915 and dubbed Sumner County High School, becoming the first official four-year public high school in the county. Although its beginnings were meager, with not much more than a few classrooms and only one college-educated instructor, by 1940 it became the first accredited high school in the county, receiving this honor from the Southern Association of Secondary Schools. By 1956, most teachers had college degrees. In 1961, the school moved to a new building and once again became Portland High School.
Next came Gallatin High School in 1914. Originally opened as the Trousdale-Allen School, the name was changed to Central High School in 1915 and then opened in a new facility in 1932 as Gallatin High School. The current building was opened in 1974.
Beech School opened in 1910 to serve students from first through eighth grades, but then was expanded to accommodate high school students in 1914. It had only one graduating class, in 1918, and then many of the boys shipped off to fight in World War I. Since educating girls was not deemed as important as educating boys, it became a two-year school until 1929, when it closed. It was not until 1980 that the current Beech High School was established to ease overpopulation in the other schools.
Goodlettsville High School began in an old house and several tents in 1917 and continued as a four-year school through the war, with the first graduation taking place in 1921. It was closed in 1986 with the formation of Hunters Lane High School.
Originally schools were forged to teach the basics of reading, writing, mathematics, social studies and history, but the post-industrial revolution 1920s brought about the teaching of what is now called Career and Technical Education. Most classes ran from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. so that farm kids could help their families with the morning chores.
“Each student listened attentively as the teacher spoke because she was a strict disciplinarian,” Charlotte Snapp writes in Mountain Memories of her mother’s experiences. “If someone misbehaved in class, they either had to stand in the corner, were paddled or switched, or had to stay after school to do extra work. But worse yet, when the parents found out about a behavior problem, the child was punished when he or she got home…As the school day ended, we walked the mile home discussing the day’s events and the homework assignments we must complete by the following morning. Our day did not end with school. When we got home we changed our clothes and did our chores such as feeding and milking the cows, preparing supper and washing and packing away the dishes. We had to do all our schoolwork before we went to bed.”
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