Grimsley High School - Whirligig Yearbook (Greensboro, NC)

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There developed a need for an even larger high school, completely separate from the lower grades. A plan was proposed for the erection of a junior high school, a senior high school, and a junior college, in separate groups, facing Westover Terrace in consecutive order. In 1927 the million dollar senior high school project was started on the 129-acre tract. During the year 1929 three of the six proposed high school buildings — the main building, the science building, and the cafeteria — were completed; also, supposedly temporary boys’ dressing rooms were erected. The class of 1931 planted the ivy, and a new gymnasium for all students was built in 1933. Until 1934 the auditorium had been without the present murals of industry and trade on the left of the stage and the symbols of the professions on the right About 1935 a combina¬ tion band room and shop gave more space, and with the erection of the present vocational building in 1940, this combination gave to the girls their own separate gym, with the area between this and the boys ' gym modeled into the girls’ shower room. The project for our own high school stadium, started in 1939, was at last completed in 1949- It is one of the finest high school stadiums in the South, with a seating capacity of 10,426. There, the first All-Star game was played in September, 1949, and on that field the present Sigmund Selig Pearl Field House, completed in 1950, was formally dedicated at a football game in the fall of 1950. In the old church building on Forbis Street, the first graduating class of 1900 had Mr. Samuel Smith as principal, and the four teachers instructed the members in their seven subjects. The high school then went through only the ninth grade. Mr. E. D. Broadhurst became principal in 1900 and was succeeded by Mr. W. H. Swift in 1901, under whom the first book rental system and first school library in the state were initiated in 1902. Also the tenth grade was added then. Mr. W. C. Jackson served as principal from 1904 until 1909. When the high school, under the administration of Mr. A. H. King, was moved to Spring Street in 1911, the eleventh grade was added. Greensboro High School, with a faculty of fifteen, became an accredited high school in the fall of 1917, the first of Mr. O. A. Hamilton’s two years. In

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ences, and numerous extra-curricular activities. But how often do we think back through the years of all the planning and work that went into making Senior High what it is today? The Greensboro schools date back even further than 1863, when Eli Carruthers was principal in a little brick building on Sycamore Street. This school was an outgrowth of the old Caldwell Institute, the first of Greensboro’s public schools. The public schools were chartered by the North Carolina State Legislature in 1845. From these earliest schools in Greensboro, an extensive public education system has grown, having its tap roots on Lindsay and Forbis Streets. It was on Forbis Street that the first class graduated from a new and separate department, the high school, in 1900. As we have come from carriages to slick convertibles and from bustles to ballerinas, the high school has also seen astounding changes since that first class. Through the past fifty years our school has been steadily expanding, adding new subjects and creating through its activities and organizations, new outlets for our talents and interests. These play important parts in our develop¬ ment as useful and well-rounded individuals. WE HAVE EXPERIENCED A WIDE PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT As more and more students enrolled in Greensboro High School, the four rooms in the old Catholic Church building on Forbis Street became crowded. The City of Greensboro appropriated 40,000 dollars for building a new school on Spring Street which was completed in 1911. A cafeteria was added in 1919.

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1921, the last year of Mr. D. R. Price’s administration, the first city-wide physical education program in the state was introduced at the high school. In 1922 the first instruction in music at Spring Street was under the direction of Mr. Glenn Gildersleve. This was Mr. Guy B. Phillips’ second term as principal. It was under his principalship that our first organized summer school was established in 1924. Mr. Phillips became superintendent of the city schools in 1929 and was succeeded by our present superintendent Mr. Ben L. Smith. Mr. Lee H. Edwards followed Mr. Phillips as principal from 1924 until 1925, and his successor was Mr. C. W. Phillips who continued as principal for eight years. For the first time there was a mid-term graduating class in 1926, and boys were given academic credit for the attainment of Eagle rank in scouting. That year, though public school music was begun in 1900, the first real high school progress in chorus work was made by the or ganization of the first glee club, which originated as a quartet. The following year a permanent band came into its own with Mr. Grady Miller as the first band-master, and classes in speech and dramatics were begun. With the class of 1928, Mr. Earl Slocum established our first orchestra, and the three subjects in advanced mathematics were added. The year 1929 brought the beginning of art, with Miss Henrietta Lee as instructor, full time dramatics, and classes in journalism and creative writing, taught by Miss Marjorie Craig. Shop was organized and set up in the basement the following year. From about 1929 until the depression in 1933, our high school was at its highest peak, with a faculty of sixty and approximately 1,200 students. During the dark days of the depression, the city failed to provide a supplement, and consequently a three year period of eight-months’ school was begun. Mr. E. T. McSwain officiated until Mr. A. P. Routh became our principal in February, 1934. The year after Mr. Routh came, twelve students, who earned no wages, enrolled in the first diversified occupations class in the state, and one of the first two in the South. A year later we began one of the first distributive education classes in North Carolina. The first students in the state to receive credit and to graduate from night- school training finished in 1941. The succeeding year brought to an end the