The Center Hill School, completed in the summer of 1918, ushered in a new age of rural school consolidation. Five smaller schools, Centerville, Clays Crossroads, Hill, Hyson, and Jacksonville, were closed to make way for one large school per precinct. And the building that would house the students from these smaller schools was handsome, sturdy, and hopefully, inspiring. The 1.5-story Colonial Revival style building rested on a dressed limestone foundation, and the common bond brick walls were pierced by large, wooden, 8/8 double-hung sash windows, with limestone sills and lintels. This original portion of the building was distinguished by a cupola and the central cross gable containing an arched entryway and a stone nameplate above the archway.
Rendering of the Center Hill School, artist and date unknown. Image from the Kentucky Heritage Council survey files.
The school’s foundation was raised, with windows above the grade – likely providing additional classroom or cafeteria space. The school received a number of additions over the years, and served the students of Bourbon County until 1991. Consolidation, in the end, was both the birth and death of the Center Hill School.
Location of Center Hill School in the topographic quadrangle of that name, 1954.
The first school year at Center Hill was cut short by the outbreak of the 1918 influenza pandemic. During the last four months of 1918, some 9,461 Kentuckians died from the flu.* In an effort to stem the spread of the illness, the State Board of Health issued an order on October 8, 1918, closing all schools, churches, moving picture house, and all places of public assembly. (Hmmm – this sounds familiar.)
The Bourbon News, October 29, 1918.
The new school reopened on January 20, 1919, with “Miss Nancy Owens and her assistant, Miss Cordelia Oder, in attendance.” A third teacher was scheduled to start at the school, if only she could find a place to board in the neighborhood.
Looking at the school from Russell Cave Road, facing southeast. February 2019.
While it appears there was no shortage of students, finding teachers for the new rural schools proved problematic. Four schools in the county – Ruddles Mills, McIlvaine, Eals and Burris – could not open in September 1918, as “the teachers selected found that they could not obtain board and lodging within a reasonable distance of the school.” While I don’t know what steps the county board of education took in the other districts, at Center Hill, a house was built for teachers on the school grounds.
The circa 1921 bungalow constructed for Center Hill teachers.
In 1921, Perry Lumber Company of Lexington, Kentucky, won the bid to construct a dwelling for teachers at Center Hill School. The school board appropriated $3,000 for the construction, with the remainder of the funds to be raised by the community. I wonder if any of the other Bourbon County schools had teacher’s residences? Along with the addition of a teacher’s dwelling, the board hired a principal for the school, one C.S. Holbrook, a graduate of Columbia University.
The 1.5-story frame bungalow sits on a stone foundation, with an off-center door flanked by two large windows, and a front gable dormer on the upper story of the facade. While it didn’t appear to be in pristine condition when I photographed it in 2019, it was certainly better off than the school building.
Center Hill School, February 2019.
Only six years after it opened, a new addition was planned for the Center Hill School. The building contractor firm of R.O. Duncan and Son of Paris was awarded the $20,000 job, scheduled for completion in the fall of 1924. Although I don’t know exactly how the school’s footprint expanded, since I took my photos from the public right-of-way, I imagine the 1924 addition encompassed the six-bay wide wings to either side of the central and original portion, and expanded the grades at the school from 1-8 to include high school.
The Kentuckian Citizen, November 22, 1924.
In 1930, the school adopted the junior high school plan, an effort at standardization across the Bourbon County schools. Students could transfer from any of the six consolidated schools in the county or the city school with “little, if any change in text books.”
The November 1936 honor roll at Center Hill School.
The school was a focal point of the rural community. Baseball and basketball games drew larger crowds, and ice cream suppers, parties, and meetings were held at the school. The baseball team, in particular, enjoyed a dizzying amount of winning seasons in the 1930s.
Circa 1950s photo of Principal Allie Shelton in front of Center Hill School. Photo sourced from social media, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10231004048508854&set=g.311500818914119
And through the mid-20th century, Center Hill continued to grow and expand. The Bourbon County Board of Education embarked on a modernization scheme in 1956, with a $350,000 building program.** Six additional classrooms, a cafeteria, and more restroom facilities were scheduled to be added at the Center Hill School.
This round of construction likely resulted in the round-roofed addition at the far south end of the school, perhaps a combination gymnasium/cafeteria.
A circa 1979 view of the interior of the Center Hill School. Photograph by William Gus Johnson, KHC survey files.
As always, I am so grateful for the wandering souls who went before me in pursuit of documenting Kentucky’s historic resources. While I have no doubt that Center Hill continues to live large in the memories of those who attended school there, if it weren’t for the records of the Kentucky Heritage Council/the State Historic Preservation Office, folks like me would never be able to make a connection between the sad, falling down school I encountered one bright February day, and the history of a historic school.
The 1979 survey form that captured a glimpse of Center Hill School before its closure and decline.
Now, most of the roof of the school has fallen in, and open to the elements, even the shell won’t last much longer. It joins a long list of once-proud school buildings across Kentucky that were denied a second chance at serving the community once the classrooms fell silent. I wish we could do better by our historic buildings in Kentucky- better at repurposing them and in doing so, honoring all those who invested so much within their walls.
*These were reported and recorded deaths.
**Lexington Herald, October 3, 1956, page 8.
Beautiful essay. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 ✊🏻.