Cooleemee's Brick High School

Cooleemee's Brick High School. . To satisfy the expanding education needs of Cooleemee and Jerusalem Township a new brick school was built here. It eventually comprised grades one through eleven. Its center stood 80 yards northwest. , Cooleemee High School was ready for occupancy on February 10, 1923. In 1925 the senior class published its first year book. , This modern structure was built with sixteen classrooms and an auditorium which seated 1,000. The auditorium stage measured 38'x60' and doubled as a basketball court. , From the beginning the school and its surrounding community shared the closest of bonds. The auditorium was full of proud parents and kinfolk for every school play, music recital, basketball tournament and commencement ceremony. , The community also utilized school facilities for J.C. Sell's annual fiddlers conventions and for lectures by the travelling Chautauqua group. A community cannery was added to the school yard in the 1930s and the Cooleemee School PTA was chartered in 1938. , In the 1930's the County Board of Education along with the Works Progress Administration built eight new classrooms. At the initiative of Erwin Mills, Textile Union #251 and school officials, a 1948 county bond referendum passed providing funds to build yet another wing. , A new gymnasium had a seating capacity of 1,000 on roll-away bleachers. An up-to-date industrial arts shop was added along with a new home economics classroom. A new cafeteria in the basement had a seating capacity of 150 students and staff. , School principals included Samuel Holton, W. T. Moore, E.W. Junker, George E. Smith, G. R. Madison and V.G. Prim. , Among its beloved teachers were: Annie Bost, Mrs. A. D. Walters, James Wall, Maude Bost, Lucille Bumgarner, Alma Bass, Gertie Smith, Elizabeth Carnes, Mrs. W. J. Moody, Paul Donnelly, "Shorty” Coulter, Mary Zachary, Marjorie Mosely, Mary Lee McMahan, Ralph Sinclair, Charlotte Purcell, Sue Munday, Beaulah Apperson, Lucille Ward, Tom Ridenhour, Jack Ward, Lena Sink, Ruth Bessent, Ruby Moore, Polly Bahnson, Mary Wall Sexton and Mariola Crawford. , The Class of 1956 was the last to graduate from Cooleemee High School. Much to the distress of local citizens it was demolished and set ablaze in 1974. , In 1998 a time capsule was buried 18 yards north of this spot to commemorate Cooleemee's Centennial year. It will be opened in the year 2048.