Asheville High School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Asheville High School | |
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| School type | Public |
|---|---|
| Established | 1929 |
| District | Asheville City Schools |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Principal | Judd Porter |
| Faculty | 138 |
| Students | 1200 |
| Mascot | Cougar |
| Location | 419 McDowell Street Asheville, 28803 |
| Website | Link |
Asheville High School (formerly Lee H. Edwards High School) in Asheville, North Carolina, is the only secondary school in the Asheville City School System. It is located on 419 McDowell Street, in a building designed by Douglas Ellington. Construction of the original building was begun in 1927 and completed in 1929. A modern addition was built in 1970, and in 2006 a new cafeteria was finished. It has been ranked in the top 100 high schools in the United States by Newsweek Magazine.
[edit] History
The first school to bear the name Asheville High School was in use during the first decade of the twentieth century. A former women’s college, it was located on Oak Street. Because of the number of people brought into town by Asheville’s newly connected railroad, this school was overcrowded and a new school bearing the name Asheville High was built. This high school, located on Orange Street, was completed in 1919, 3 years after its planned completion date. Because of this, the school was overcrowded on the day it opened. In 1924, after more five years of crowded conditions, the school board decided that another high school should be built, this time on the west side of Asheville. This high school, completed in 1928, was named Hall Fletcher High School, and the school’s first principal was Lee H. Edwards, of Greensboro.
The population of Ashville continued to grow in the late 1920s. By 1926 the school board agreed that “a large, central high school plant” was needed. A committee formed to locate a suitable location reported that it found “only one site within the City of sufficient size, and of reasonable price … this tract of land lies between Victoria Road and the new McDowell Street.” Out of seven architects submitting proposals for the new high school, Douglas D. Ellington was selected by majority vote. In addition Dr. Nickolaus Louis Englehardt of Colombia University was hired as an advisor to the architect. Dr. Englehardt had worked a great deal in school planning and design on a national level. Ellington and Englehardt's collaboration made the new Asheville High a model facility in terms of architecture and educational offerings. The former Asheville High School was renamed David Millard Junior High School and, together with Hall Fletcher, served as the city’s junior high schools for a time.
Asheville High School opened on February 5, 1929, with a dedication ceremony in the auditorium including as speakers the Mayor of Asheville, the superintendent of Asheville City Schools, Douglas Ellington, Lee H. Edwards, the president of the PTA, the Headmaster of the Asheville School and the president of Duke University. When first opened, Asheville High had a wide variety of vocational programs including automotive mechanics, full print shops (all yearbooks, newspapers, and magazines were printed on-campus), mechanical drawing, and photography, including a darkroom.
When the stock market crashed in September 1929, it took Asheville by surprise. This forced the programming for the schools, and indeed the city’s economic well-being, to hit rock bottom. For a time, Asheville High was closed, and students were removed to David Millard and Hall Fletcher. All extras were cut for a time, including much of the school's technical curriculum. In 1935 the school was renamed Lee H. Edwards High School in honor of Principal Edwards, who died unexpectedly that year.
In 1949, another vocational facility (known today as the ROTC building) was created across from the original shop wing. This facility was built by students in the vocational program, as a real-world example of construction. In 1965, another larger vocational building was built. In the early 1970s, a media center addition was added to the main building. In 1973, a new gym and athletic facility was attached to the old vocational building. In the early 1990s, a cultural arts building was built. Finally, in 2006, a new cafeteria was added to the campus.
