Madison High has Long History

Madison High has Long History

A brand new 12-grade building, an addition to an existing high school building, lots of new school equipment: the Richmond Board of Education certainly was busy in the year 1922. Madison High School, the brand-new $110,000 two-story brick building for twelve grades, was almost finished in the Fall of 1922. The start of the school year was delayed until Sept 18, in or-der to have most of the rooms ready for the children. The official dedication of the building did not take place until May 1923. Some furniture and equipment had been salvaged when the Caldwell School on North Second Street had been destroyed by arson in 1921. New furniture was purchased by the city board of education in July 1922. An extensive display of furniture and supplies by nine different companies was set up in the new gymnasium. Members of the school board and a group called the Citizens Committee spent several days examining all wares and talking to salesmen from companies from Cincinnati, Chicago, Cleveland, Louisville, St. Louis, Huntington, and Richmond, Ky. The total spent on new furnishings was around $10,000, about $2,000 less than had been budgeted by the board. Among the contracts awarded were 550 pupil desks $4.37 each: 11 dozen kindergarten chairs at $19.50 a dozen: 14 kindergarten tables at $8.50: 20 teachers desks at $20.15 a piece: and 900 auditorium seats at $3.15 each, installed. In addition to the furniture, 3,570 square feet of slate blackboard was purchased at .39 cents a square foot. Single row, double tier metal lockers were obtained at $3.72 each. In August of 1922, the board of education let a contract for an addition to the Richmond High School Building, the city's 12-grade school for black students in those segregated days. The addition included an industrial arts (called "manual arts" back then) room on the first floor which measured 60x30 feet, and two additional classrooms with a hallway between. A large basement room was also built underneath the new addition, a place for recess and after-school play when the weather was bad. The Richmond High School construction project cost $8,672.50, the Register reported, covered by the same bonds that were used to cover the cost of the new Madison High building. For those persons not familiar with the history of Richmond, the Madison High building was rededlcated by the Madison County Board of Education as Madison Middle School on Sept. 22, 1992. The Richmond High Building is now the home of the Telford Community Center. Although Richmond High School was discontinued over 30 years ago, it still has an active alumni association which preserves its heritage.

Dr. Robert Grise

10/31/1992

Content may be freely copied for personal and educational purposes with appropriate citation. Permission is required to reprint.