Beech Grove High School, 1900-1963

BEECH GROVE HIGH SCHOOL 1900-1963 was on the west side of State Road 8, the old Manchester Turnpike, and about .75 miles south of Beech Grove in Coffee County. William Jacobs deeded three acres of land to the Coffee County Board of Education for a school.

Materials from the BEECHGROVE MALE AND FEMALE ACADEMY were used in the construction of the new public school. The first frame building was destroyed by fire in the fall of 1925 and a modern new stucco building was erected in 1926.

John T. Jacobs taught in the frame building and Mary McKnight Manley taught in the stucco one. Both were from Rutherford County.

Because of its proximity to Rutherford County, students from Rutherford also attended the school. Some were Anna Bell Mankin, Herbert and Luke Jacobs, Will Chadwick, Ethel and Kate Nesbitt.

At first, grades 1-11 were included; then grades 1-10, until 1960. The school at that time became a grammar school.

In 1963, the school was consolidated with the North Coffee Elementary and Coffee County Junior High School.

After the school closed, the building was used for a community center. It burned in July 1978, just before it was to be sold at auction.

SOURCES: *David Jacobs, Beech Grove. *Mary McKnight Manley.

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