Input invited on celebration of
Grove's 100th anniversary
By HEATHER BRYANT
P-I Staff Writer
| Local citizens will discuss how to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Henry County's Grove School during a meeting at 7 p.m. June 6 at the Paris- Henry County Heritage Center, 614 N. Poplar St. in Paris. David Webb, county historian, said he hopes many individuals and groups will participate in the meeting. Webb said some ideas he has heard for commemoration are placing historical markers at the Grove Tower and E.W. Grove's gravesite in the Paris City Cem- etery; Holding a community wide celebration event and inviting Grove's descendants to Paris and encouraging Grove alumni to hold special class reunions. Grove School, 215 Grove Blvd., is one of the nation's first ninth-grade-only schools. Offices for the Henry County School System are located in the Tower Building on the school's campus. Grove principal Mike Poteete said there are 387 students enrolled at the school and the students are able to concentrate more on academics because there is only one grade level. "Grove School is very unique because it puts everyone on the same playing field their first year of high school," said Poteete. Along with traditional courses such as math and science, Grove School requires an academic counseling class that addresses everyday life skills and study techniques which, sets Grove apart from other high schools, he said. |
He said he would like it if teachers were commemorated in some way for the 100th anniver- sary of the school. "I hope students appreciate the teachers that are here to help them make a positive influ- ence," he said. Poteete said the Grove campus is eye-appealing and an addition to the cafeteria allows students to dine on an outside deck which he said was enjoyable for them. Grove High School became one of Tennessee's first county- wide public high schools and the first privately endowed high school in the state and earned a reputation for excellence from ivy-league colleges. Edwin Wiley Grove proposed to build Henry County's first free public high school in 1905 and the cornerstone for the school was laid on June 26, 1906. Classes were held in the city hall in September and were moved to the Tower Building when it was completed that winter. Grove was one of the first public high schools admitted membership to the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in 1915. It served as a high school until the fall of 1969 when all high schools in the county were consolidated into Henry County High School. When HCHS opened, the Grove campus became known as Grove Junior High School and housed seventh- and eighth-graders from the Paris Special School District and ninth-graders from throughout the county. |
When the ninth-graders were moved to HCHS in the 1980s, the school name was changed to Grove Middle School. When the campus began hous- ing only ninth-graders from both school systems in the fall of 1996, the ,'name became Grove School. E.W. Grove became a million- |
Reprinted from THE PARIS
POST-INTELLIGENCER
June 1, 2005 Edition