Piedmont High School - Summit Yearbook (Lawndale, NC)

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Piedmont High School Lawndale, N C, on our campus. The main building, Schenck Hall, con¬ tains four well lighted and well ventilated recitation rooms, a dining room thirty-three by seventy, a kitchen with many conveniences, an office and rooms for the Principal and his family. The whole of the upper story of this building is used as a dormitory for girls. The next is a stately building containing the department of Music, the business school, the primary department and an auditorium fitted with raised seats and modern stage scenery. Its seating capacity is about nine hundred. The Waters ' Library building now in course of erection will be completed by the beginning of the next session. This building is the bequest of Miss Sallie Waters, erected in memory of her brother, Captain A. G. Waters, who was a brave Confederate soldier killed in the battle of Gains Mill, near Richmond, Virginia, June 27, 1862. The legacy was not sufficient for the building desired but the deficit was made up by Major PI. F. Schenck and Mr. John F. Schenck. The building, thirty by thirty-six, two stories, built of pressed brick, the smallest but the finest of our buildings, adorns the crest of the hill. It is a fit monument for one who gave life for native land—more appropriate by far than glistering marble or lofty granite. On May the seventeenth, the last day of our com¬ mencement, after an inspiring address by Honorable T. W. Bickett, Major H. F. Schenck, President of the Board of Trustees, presented the needs of the School to the audience, and asked for five thousand dollars to pay off the existing indebtedness, to paint the buildings and to install water-works. A wave of enthusiasm, such as is seldom seen when people are asked for money, passed over the audience. Wealthy men, boys and girls working their way through school, women and children, all caught the spirit of the hour. More than six thousand dollars was raised. The thanks of the school are due to the friends of the institution whose loyalty and liberality seven

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Piedmont High School Lawndale, N. G the dining-hall was remodeled. Yet, when the session opened and boys and girls began to arrive we found that we needed more room. The fact that it seems almost impossible to secure enough room for our students demonstrates clearly the wisdom of our plans and the soundness of our policy; not, perhaps, from a financial standpoint, but from the standpoint of doing the most good to the most people. A handsome building thirty by fifty, two stories high, was erected during the summer and it was ready for occupancy at the beginning of the session of 1909-1910. The lower story of this building is used as a boys’ dormitory. The upper story is used by the Musigmarhonian and the Pierian Literary Societies. On the seventh day of March, 1910, the main building, containing recitation rooms, dining-room, auditorium, Principal’s office and residence, girls’ dormitory, and one dormitory for boys, was destroyed by fire. As only two dormitories for boys and the society halls remained, it was impossible to continue our work, so the school was suspended for the remainder of the session. Major Schenck, the President of the Board of Trustees, called a meeting of the citizens and it was determined to re¬ build. The contract was let and work was begun at once. Sequestered student life gave place to the builder’s work. Girls, boys, teachers, study and examinations had given way to the carpenter, the mason and the tinner. Soon the wooded hill was resonant with the craftsman’s tool. Out of the ashes of the old was born a bigger and a better Piedmont. Out of the fire-fiend’s ruin, out of cherished, broken plans have come the fruition of broader foundations and the realization of higher ideals. Three handsome structures, more modern in construction than the old, more dormitory rooms, more recitation rooms, greater conveniences, water-works, a larger campus, larger play grounds and electric lights are the outcome of our terrible disaster. In all there are six buildings six

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Piedmont High School Lawndale, N. C have made it possible for us to take another step forward in the march of progress. Piedmont is not dead. Piedmont is no longer in its ineancy. PIEDMONT IS NOT AN EXPERI¬ MENT. From small beginnings, through toil and sacri¬ fice, it has ripened in efficiency till it is now generally recognized as one of the strongest preparatory schools in the State. It has fifteen years of steady growth behind it, a large patronage and many friends in the present, and glorious possibilities for the future. Our water cannot be surpassed. A well dug through ninety feet of almost solid rock is conveniently located for our use, besides, at a distance of not more than four hundred yards from the School, are springs of health¬ giving sulphur and chalybeate water. Situated on the top of a majestic hill sloping in every direction, thus giving perfect natural drainage; com¬ manding a magnificent view of hills, vales, grassy un¬ dulating plains, and of the Blue Ridge in the distance; shaded by a forest of stately oaks; enlivened by the music of rippling water; with excellent drinking water and air free from the taint of malaria, nature has made this an ideal spot for an educational institution of a high . order. But what has man done towards perfecting it ? He has given us daily mail, communication with all the world by telephone and telegraph, a railroad within a mile of the School, electric lights, water-works, dormi¬ tories adequately furnished, large recitation rooms fitted with patent desks of the most approved pattern, and last, but not least, by his efiforts as instruments in God’s hands we are unpolluted by bar-rooms, gambling dens and other moral dangers of town and city life, which too often blight the lives of boys from Christian homes and blast the hopes of their dearest friends. We are nearly one mile from Lawndale; thus we have the advantage of the eight