Wenonah High School

Wenonah High School is a high school in the Birmingham City Schools system. Formal education in the Wenonah area was provided by the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company (TCI), now U.S. Steel, as early as 1917.

First Wenonah School

Wenonah School #1 began operating as early as 1917 at TCI's Wenonah #9 mining camp (the current site of the East Brownsville Park). Free schooling was provided to the children of TCI employees in grades 1-9. Another school, (Wenonah School #2) served grades 1-5 at Browns Station. After completing the 9th grade students could continue their education at Powderly School, Miles Memorial School or Parker High School. The school was later absorbed into the Jefferson County Schools system.

In 1946, Wenonah School, then helmed by principal Mabel Buffin, was destroyed by fire. People of the Wenonah area requested and received permission to hold classes in the old Galilee Baptist Church. Beginning in the fall of 1946, students of the destroyed Wenonah School attended classes at the Galilee, Bryant Chapel and Mt Olive Baptist Churches and at Riley and Powderly Schools.

Wenonah High School (1948)

After Wenonah School was destroyed by fire in 1946, the TCI Company donated a large parcel of land consisting of approximately 16 acres to be used to construct a new elementary and high school. Construction began in late 1946.

In the fall of 1947, students in grades 8-12 from Galilee Baptist, Mt Olive and Bryant Chapel Baptist Churches and Riley Elementary School began classes in the downstairs classrooms of Wenonah Elementary School while construction was being completed upstairs and on the high school.

The school plant was built at a cost a cost of $500,000 and included 15 classrooms, administrative office, lunchroom, athletic room, shoe repair, upholstery and radio repair shop, cosmetology, foods and clothing labs.

In January 1948, the 9-12 grade students at the elementary school, Powderly School and students from surrounding areas of Jefferson County as far away as Shades Valley and McCalla attended classes in the building led by Principal Leon Kennedy. In May 1948, the first senior class graduated from Wenonah High School.

In 1956, seven classrooms, a library and gym were added to the school plant.

In August 1968, the dream of having a Wenonah Area Vocational School became a reality and its doors were opened to students that September.

In the spring of 1970, a new facility was erected by the Jefferson County Board of Education at a cost of $300,000 to house the Wenonah Area Vocational School. The building is located on the southwest side of the Wenonah High School campus, which provides an ideal situation for faculty and students.

In 1973, Wenonah High School was annexed into the city of Birmingham. Administration of Wenonah was taken over by the Birmingham Board of Education.

In 1981, a new gym was constructed and equipped at a cost of more than $1 million.

2007 campus

In 2005, construction began on a new Wenonah High School, just northeast of the 1948 school campus. On August 13, 2007, classes began in portions the new $40 million school. Construction was led by Doster Construction and architectural services were provided by McCauley Associates.

The new Wenonah High School replaced the 1948 building with a 183,000 square foot facility that is built for 1,200 students. It includes a 750 seat auditorium with theatrical lighting and sound systems. The main academic building features a state-of-the art media center, computer laboratories and classrooms for science, math, social studies, English and other subjects.

The career-technical wing contains an electronics classroom with lab areas, a classroom and fully equipped commercial kitchen for the schools well-known culinary arts program and a family and consumer science classroom. There are also classrooms and labs for welding and cosmetology. Band and chorus classrooms also are part of the career-tech wing, which includes the cafeteria.

The new campus includes a gymnasium for practice and physical education classes. The "new gym" that was part of the old school, a free-standing building, was renovated and expanded into a 1,400 seat competition gym.

A new 4,500 seat football stadium with a six lane track, concession stands, restrooms and irrigation system was also built on the campus. All construction was completed in January, 2008.

References

• "Wenonah High School." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 24 Sep 2007, 00:35 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 20 Dec 2007 [1] .
• Kent, Dawn (January 25, 2008) "Doster Construction wraps up work on new Wenonah High." Birmingham News.