We ran across this old White Super Power wrecker/tow truck sitting beside the road in Unicoi County TN. It may be a 1948 model. Here’s the name plate on the side of the motor housing:
A look inside the cabin:
Here’s the name plate for the company that did the conversion:
It reads: Ernest Holmes Co. Chattanooga Tenn U.S.A.
Cat. No. W35
Model No. (unreadable)
Serial No. (as best as I can make out) HKs151
This is in Greene County TN, just off Walkertown Road between Highway 93 and Headrick Lane, behind a refuse collection area (digital coordinates: 36.260136, -82.753948). I thank Don Miller, Director of the Greeneville/Greene County Public Library for information on this derelict old school. Walkertown Elementary School was active between 1938 and 1949. Because of the chain link fence around the collection area, I wasn’t able to get a clean shot of the building. We walked over and looked around. It’s filled with junk, but was, at one time, a quality building with, I think, a cloakroom just inside the front door. Here’s a close look at the front (I wonder where the bell went…):
This is in Greene County TN. Baileyton School is a low and wide brick building, hard to get one comprehensive picture of, so, since it’s not particularly distinct in an architectural way, I opted to show the story. First the sign that’s on a small brick building in front of the school:
Now, that’s proof of the school. In the building is a bell:
It was created by Buckeye Bell Foundry (Cincinnati OH/still in business) in 1883 and presented by Capt. B. M. Bailey to Oakland Seminary, Laurel Gap, TN (Laurel Gap is a natural passageway through the Bays Mountains to Hawkins County). Laurel Gap was the name Baileyton went by early in the 19th century, presumably until the settlement was incorporated as “Baileyton” in 1915 (according to “Tennessee Placenames” by Larry L. Miller). And now, the rest of the story:
I haven’t found out yet why it was called “Oakland Seminary”, but I will.
Blackwater VA, 24221. Just over Newman’s Ridge from Sneedville TN. Want to know more about this community? Wiki has an entry, sort of.
Classy school, logs and all. This, again according to the notation on the topo map of this area, is Stone Mountain Elementary School at 122 Price Road in Hawkins County. It’s near Pressman’s Home, now rather airily known as “Camelot” (I got to go on an elementary school field trip to Pressman’s Home around 1956 or so. It was an impressive place). It was a valid elementary school in 1955 (I found a page of the Rogersville newspaper that listed its graduating class of that year). Otherwise, I’m still researching this one.
The topo map of this area, on Highway 70 in Hawkins County, near Eidson, identifies this as Rock Hill School. I don’t know when it was built, but it looks sort of 30s-ish and I believe it closed in the mid-80s. Obviously, it became a fire station after that.
I’m in Sneedville TN. This stone building was once an annex of sorts to the long-gone Hancock County school that sat where the upper parking lot is for the new school. I had a class in this building (6th grade, I think)…a geography class. I can’t remember the name of the man who taught the class. He was a tall and angular, very pleasant, well-spoken person and he knew his geography. Unfortunately, to me, he also had a really strong country accent. I was a punctilious kid and a smart ass, to boot. He came in and caught me standing in front of the class mocking his accent (Lima, Peru came out to rhyme with “I-ma Me-too”. The kids thought it was funny, but they thought it was funnier when he gave me a couple of swift slaps on the butt.
This plaque is on the left side of the door:
It means that the National Youth Administration, then part of the W.P.A., built this in 1939, the last year that group functioned under the W.P.A. It was disbanded in 1943.
My buddy had spotted about 20 schools on the topo maps of Hawkins and Hancock Counties in Tennessee and Lee County in Virginia. Recently, we drove a long, looping tour that took us to each of them…some were long gone, some in really bad shape and some were just fine, as is this smart looking school on the A .J. Osborne Highway near Blackwater VA. Indeed, it is Blackwater High School, opened in 1925 and closed in 1971. Here’s a website that takes a look at Blackwater VA and its colorful history.
However, as I closely looked at the school building I noticed those two vents below the windows. I saw this:
“VSBE”? I had to wait until I got back to find out what it means: Virginia State Board of Education.
As long as that building survives, it will always tell those who closely look that it was once a school.
This is Shell Creek School, built between 1911-1912 and in use until 1929, when Cloudland School was built. Mr. Joseph Penza, Archivist and Records Clerk at the Elizabethton/Carter County Public Library provided me with valuable and interesting information about this school in an extract from “Carter County Tennessee And Its People 1796-1993”, published by the Carter County History Book Committee. The book is out of print, but I’m going to look for a copy. The page scan he sent me was really informative. This school is located just off Highway 37, about 1.8 miles from Roan Mountain toward North Carolina. Note the bell cupola.
I found this behind the 1941 Mabel school building in Mabel NC (Watauga County). I am no expert, but I think this is a late 1930s or early 1940s General Motors International unit. It was modded by Buffalo Appliance Company. The badge and any identifying marks are gone. I couldn’t get inside because a bee colony had taken up residence and they were buzzing around acting annoyed. I did manage to take a picture of the interior, though. If you have better data on this, please let me know.
