Marion High School - Mariton Yearbook (Belle Vernon, PA)

Page 15 text:

that he should be permitted to name the school. In deference to his old friend, General Francis Marion, for whom he had great respect and admiration, the small edifice received the name which today brings fond memories of school da s to many both at homo and on far flung battlefields. Few people are still alive who received a part of their early training in this original Marion School. When the school population had outgrown this structure, e one room building was placed at Naomi and e larger one of wood was constructed on the sito of the present grade and Jr. High building at Marion. This was to be more centrally located on a plot then owned by the Cooks. f -fffi9f+Pl12?f2sf- F ..,.,.. 'jill-Leitifzf Ff15-1Li,1i15sg?fg,- f i -X EN In the fall of 1866, Mr. James Alton moved his classes to their new location. This became the community center where the Sunday School, spelling bees, literary society, and tho evening writing classes were conducted. As the community, with its grist mills, woolen mills, and later its mines, grew and prospered, it became necessary to accommodate more students, so two rooms fone above the other? , were added at the rear. In 1899, the one room building in the front was sold and moved beck to make a dwelling. Four rooms were new added in front of the two, making a six room building.

Page 17 text:

,, ,dn -Y I In 1911, another two rooms were added to the rear two. These eight rooms were used until 1920, when the building became de- stroyed by fire. In this building most of our mothers and our fathers received a part of their education, dt? fl H '33 West of this building, on the opposite side of. the road a plot of ground had been purchased from the Pittsburgh Coal Company and on it built a two room frame structure in 1912 and begun a new high school which survived only two years at which time the township merged their high school with Fayette City. Thereafter classes met in the Fayette City School Building and the small building was converted to grade school purposes, and afterward this building was used as a temporary assembly room until the-establishment Lf our present high school when it was changed into a Home Economics and Industrial Arts Building. Our present Junior High-Grade School building of sixteen rooms was dedicated in January, 1922, with Hr. C. H. Cuppett as Supervising Principal and Ur. Oliver Trickett as Principal. In a new building, here was established the first Jr. High Sdhool in Fayette County. Here, also, our tenth and eleventh grades began, in preparation for our full high school L course which had been decided upon and for the period during which our pro- scnt high school was being constructed. ii...-