INTRODUCTION
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HISTORY
History of Martin High School
Virginia Clark Vaughan
Miss Jenny, a 1937 graduate of Martin High School, was also a resident on Poplar Street, just a long block or two from MHS!
The first school in Martin was built on land donated by the sons of the founder of Martin, Captain William Martin. It was called the Martin Academy and in 1881 contained two rooms and a separate music building. In 1900, the Martin Academy burned. A subscription school was held from 1900 to 1902 in a room above the fire station. At the same time, the Baptists were building Hall-Moody College and allowed the city to use an incomplete building for students.
In 1889, a Methodist Liberal Arts College was established and built on six acres of land that covered a city block. It was bound between Sterling and College Streets and White and Poplar Streets. The land was donated by George Washington Martin and the buildings were financed by the Methodist people of Martin.
The school was named for John B. McFerrin, a prominent Tennessee preacher, editor, and administrator. The Administration building was a two-story brick that contained a large auditorium, two small study halls, four recitation rooms, a library, and a music room – all heated by hot-air furnaces and lighted by electricity. It operated as a liberal arts college when it opened its doors in 1890. Ten years later, in 1901, the trustees added a preparatory school to the curriculum and fees were charged for elementary, intermediate, and high school students.
Meanwhile the Martin District Public School, a two-story brick building, was erected in 1902 on the spot where the Weakley County Municipal Electric System building once stood. The xxx now occupies this space. As enrollment increased, another two-story brick building was constructed. This became the Martin City School in 1908. The Illinois Central Park (later Virginia Weldon Park) was the school’s playground. It then included all the land from Main Street to Park Avenue between the I.C. Railroad and Lindell Street. The school was changed from a district school to a city school in 1908.
By 1923, the enrollment at Martin District Public School had increased to 550 and the school had gradually grown from a six-month elementary school to a nine-month 12-grade school with home economics and an interscholastic athletic program.
As the public school movement grew in the county, McFerrin felt the pressure as enrollment in the lower grades decreased. McFerrin closed its doors in May of 1924. The city purchased the property from the Methodist Conference soon after that and, the following fall, Martin High School occupied the building. The first class of Martin High School was in 1926.
In 1926, the front wing of the administration building was completed. In 1956, extensive remodeling was done: four new classrooms, a cafeteria, a library, a typing room, a teachers’ lounge, and two restrooms were built.
In 1948, the city school system deeded all of its property, including 14 acres bought from the George W. Martin estate as a site for an elementary school, to the Weakley County Board of Education. On July 1, 1948, the Martin school system began to operate under the county auspices. A new elementary school was built in 1950 on College Street for grades one through eight.
Martin schools were integrated in the fall of 1966, which increased enrollment. Consolidation of the Sharon and Martin high schools came in 1970. The school was renamed Westview High School and moved to a new building on Stella Ruth Road in 1971.
Sometime after 1971, the building that had housed Martin High School was torn down and replaced in 1979 with Martin Primary School for kindergarten through grade one.
From People & Places of Downtown Martin
by Virginia Clark Vaughan
Published by Turner Publishing Company, Copyright 1997