MADRAS SCHOOL RECALLED

MADRAS SCHOOL RECALLED

Madras School, 1928

This group of students, shown in a picture that accompanied an old newspaper clipping from Mildred Holdridge, attended the former Madras School in 1928. The photograph was made on the steps of Jones Chapel Church. Teachers were Miss Jewell Gentry, Miss Annie Merle Humphries (Mrs. Charlie Summers), and Miss Lorine Collins, the home demonstration agent. Among the families represented by the youngsters are the Brown, Smith, Ferrell, Lee, Winn, Coggin, Mulkey, Morris, Rooks, Redwine, Sprayberry and Dingler families. According to the March 12, 1970, article by Mrs. D.M. Sprayberry from the Times-Herald. Madras had only a one-room school from 1899 to 1921. At that time Jones Chapel built a new building and the old church was moved to the school site and divided into three rooms with grades 1-9. The original small school house was moved down the road into a pecan orchard and rebuilt into a house. In those days, children walked four and five miles to school, she said, and later were transports in a school wagon driven by the Lee and Smith boys. As schools improved, a school bus was put on the route. By the 1970s, the building built with federal funds in 1934 had expanded into a large public school. However, the modern-day Madres School was closed at the end of the 1987-88 school term as part of the system-wide school improvement project. The building was not among those deemed suitable to renovate.

Newnan Times-Herald

1928

Mildred Holdridge

Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright law. Permission for use must be cleared through the Newnan-Coweta Historical Society. Licensing agreement may be required.

CCR 1988.11.29

Photograph