Piedmont High School - Summit Yearbook (Lawndale, NC)

Page 14 text:

8 Piedmont High School On May the seventeenth, 1911, the last day of commencement, after an inspiring address by Hon. 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 thousv and 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 the 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 thous¬ and dollars was raised. The thanks of the school are due to the friends of the institution whose loyalty and liberality have made it possible for us to take another step forward in the march of progress. Piedmont is not dead. PIEDMONT IS NO LONG¬ ER IN ITS infancy. PIEDMONT IS NOTAN EXPERI¬ MENT. From small beginnings, through toil and sacrifice, it has ripened in efficiency till it is now generally recognized as one of the strongest prepara¬ tory schools in the State. It has seventeen 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. At a distance of about a quarter of a mile from the school build¬ ings is a fine, large spring of pure, sparkling water, affording more than twelve gallons per minute. This water is piped to us by means of an electric pump. A tank of fifteen thousand gallons capacity, stand¬ ing on a steel tower more than fifty feet high, gives us the best means of fighting fire. With this and with electric lights, with no danger of exploding lamps nor deadly fumes of gas in our dormitories, with build ¬ ings of only two stories in front, we feel that ve have less to fear from fire than ever before.

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Lawndale, North Carolina 7 old, more dormitory rooms, more recitation rooms, greater conveniences, water-works, a larger campus, larger play grounds and electric lights are the out¬ come of our terrible disaster. In all there are six buildings on our campus. The main building, Schenck Hall, contains four well lighted and well ventilated recitation rooms, a dining room, thirty-three by seventy, a kitchen with many conveniences, an of¬ fice 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 build¬ ing containing the department of Music, the busi¬ ness school, the primary department and an audi¬ torium fitted with raised seats and modern stage scenery. Its seating capacity is about nine hundred. The Waters’ Library building was completed at the beginning of the last sesssion. This building, by the bequest of Miss Nancy Waters, was erected in memory of her brother, Capt. A. G. Waters, who was a brave Confederate soldier killed in the battle of Gains Mill, near Richmond, Va., June 27, 1862. The legacy was not sufficient for the building desired but the deficit was made up by Major H. 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 the evening of February the fifteenth, when the majority of the boys were attending church in Lawndale, fire broke out in Newton Hall, and in spite of the water-works and heroic efforts on the part of those present the building could not be saved as it was too far gone when discovered. There was some insurance and the hall will be exactly duplicated by the opening of the next session.

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David Hall