“When completed the high school building will be one of the most modern school plants in the South. It will be a credit to any city, regardless of its size.”
This is the opinion of Prof. A.S. Webb, superintendent of the Concord Public Schools as expressed yesterday afternoon to a representative of The Tribune as the two were en route to the building on a tour of inspection, and it is only fair to say that his opinion did not exaggerate facts in the least. The building will be all that can be asked and will be a credit to the people of Concord for years to come.
Nothing has been omitted in the construction of the building, and these orators and sponsors of school bonds, who so valiantly fought several months ago for the passage of the school bonds and who pictured in their oration a master school plant for Concord, were true prophets. The bonds made possible for the City of Concord a school plant second to none in the South in completeness, convenience and appearance, and when another month has passed and the building is thrown open to the public and to school work, education facilities in Concord can be placed on a level with those in any city in the South, certainly so far as school plants are concerned.
Built entirely of brick and containing no wood except floors, doors, wardrobes and such necessities, the building is handsome in appearance. Only the best of materials have been used and they have been constructed after plans of an architect who visioned the drew with the touch of an artist.
The building is located on a high knoll, at the end of a boulevard that has its beginning at Spring street and its terminal at the building itself. On all four sides attractive views are offered, and the boulevard permits the building to be seen plainly from Union street, at the intersection of March. Overlooking the surrounding buildings, the school structure commands the instant attention of all.
And it is worthy of the keenest attention and closest inspection, both from without and from within. Nothing has been spared to make it attractive to the eye and suitable for the work for which it was built.
containing 12 class rooms, a large superintendent’s office, a magnificent auditorium, a large library, a commodious gymnasium, shower baths, lockers, a convenient kitchen and cafeteria, and lavatory rooms, the building offers a modern school plant. Several of the class rooms are so constructed that they can be used for special classes in domestic science, physics and chemistry.
On the ground floor are the cafeteria with adjoining kitchen and pantry, the domestic science room, the sewing room, which can be used as a dining room, and a large lecture room for the instructors in chemistry, physics and domestic science, the class rooms for the chemistry and physics classes, the locker rooms and the gymnasium.
the domestic science room will be equipped with stove-desks, and each desk will be equipped with hot and cold water and gas. Special desks for the work have been installed. The lecture room on this floor will contain similar connections for the stove to be used by the instructor. In the room for the chemistry and physics students, a special stove, connected with water, gas and electricity, will be installed in the kitchen.
The cafeteria will not be used this year according to present plans. It is a large room and in addition to tables, will be equipped with counters.
In the halls on this floor, as on the other two floors, built-in drinking fountains have been installed.
The gymnasium, which is immediately under the auditorium, is large enough for a basketball court and the walls are 18 feet high. A balcony opens onto the gym and the locker rooms are equipped with sewerage facilities in addition to shower baths. The gym will be furnished with up-to-date equipment.
The class rooms on the second and third floors are standard in size and equipment. They are finished in dark brown with the same maple floors that are found throughout the building, In each room is located a wardrobe for the students’ coats and hats, a bookcase and a special locker for the teacher. The wardrobes are so constructed that part of their doors can be used for bulletin board, special material being used so that bulletins can be stuck or pinned on it.
The superintendent’s office is on the second floor, immediately over the front entrance to the building. The room is a spacious one and has a private entrance through a small hall.
The auditorium is also on the second floor, and it is the most imposing room in the structure. built to accommodate 740 theatre chairs, it is considered large enough for the needs of the school. The stage is large enough for the presentation of an average show and there are dressing rooms at either end of it. There is a raised floor in the auditorium which is handsomely finished in dull gray and the woodwork is especially beautiful.
From the third floor a balcony enters into the auditorium and several hundred persons can be seated there. The balcony floor is also raised and theatre chairs will be placed in it.
Modern and beautiful electrical fixtures are used throughout the auditorium and the color scheme of the fixtures tones perfectly with the wall finishing.
On the second and third floors there are lavatory rooms but there are no lockers or shower baths in these rooms.
On the third floor is located the reading room and library, where are adjoining rooms. The library is one of the largest rooms in the building, commanding an excellent view of the boulevard in front of the building. Shelves have already been installed in the library and when finished they will be in dull colors to match the woodwork in the room. The heating plant is one of the most interesting features of the building. the plant is one of the largest if not the largest in the city, and is the last word in heating equipment. The huge boiler affords hot water which is pumped into iron containers. The containers are so arranged that cool, fresh air is blown against them at all times.
Immediately adjoining the containers is a huge fan which blows the hot air to radiators in all rooms in the building. The arrangements assure warmth and fresh air at the same time.
Each radiator and the boiler are equipped with thermostats which are set at the degree of warmth desired in the building. If the heat goes above maximum, the automatic heating arrangement immediately ceases to function until the desired temperature is reached again. The same holds true if the heat goes below the maximum.
The system which controls the heating also controls the ventilation, which is automatic, and is known as the Johnson Service System. There are no cut-offs on the radiators as this system keeps a regular temperature at all times.
Just above the balcony of the auditorium a moving picture room has been built. The room is lined with asbestos and is fire proof. No movie machine will be installed now, but the room was built so a machine can be installed at any later date without inconvenience.
All the steps in the building are off concrete and steel, and are absolutely fireproof.
A complete fire-escape system is provided on the building. In addition to the escapes authorized by the architect, members of the school board had an additional bridge erected at one side of the auditorium.
All door are equipped with panic bolts, which open both doors at the same time, and which make escape from a burning building more certain.
In keeping with plans to make the plant one of the most modern and up-to-date in the South, members of the school board are having a large athletic field erected near the building. The ground will provide a baseball and football field. To one side of the building there is space for tennis courts.
To the right of the entrance to the building, in a naturally pretty woody spot, a park is to be laid off and beautified, Benches will be placed in the park, and it will be available for the use of the public as well as the students.
Nine hundred pounds of Bermuda grass have been purchased and this will be sown over the athletic field when it has been graded and filled in. This work will probably be completed within another month.
Plans now call for the opening of the building some time in April. It is very probably that a public meeting and inspection will be held in the building before the students move in and when this is held, Concord people will have an opportunity to see a school building of their own that is as good as that of anyone.
SCHOOL FOR COLORED CHILDREN
Workmen are now also rapidly completing the new school building or the colored children of the city. The building is located in Smith’s Grove, one of the negro suburbs, and the site vies with that of the high school for perfectness.
This school building is also of brick and is as fireproof as it is possible to construct a building. some wood is used for floors, windows and doors, but nowhere else. No space is wasted in the building, and there are no cities in the State with a better building for their colored children.
Ten class rooms are housed in the building in addition to the superintendent’s office and the large auditorium, which will seat more than 450 persons. The plan of the building offers great convenience in reaching the various class rooms.
The class rooms are practically equal in size and all are equipped with two slate blackboards. In each room there also is a built-in locker for the teachers and for books.
Modern plumbing equipment has been installed in the building. There is one large lavatory room for the boys and another for the girls, both located on the ground floor, and both easily accessible to the class rooms. Stairs leading from the second floor reach the ground floor at class rooms. Stairs leading from the second floor reach the ground floor at a point near the two lavatory rooms.
The buildings will be steam-heated and all fixtures have been painted so that everything in the building harmonizes.
In the primary grades the blackboards have been so placed that they can be easily reached by the smaller children.
Theatre seeds have been purchased for the auditorium of the school and they have already arrived. The auditorium is adjoined by two small dressing rooms and behind one of these is a large class room which can be used if necessary as a dressing room or waiting room at commencement exercises.
The west side of the building offers a commanding view of the city and the view from every side is excellent. The building has been erected almost in the heart of Smith’s Grove and the grove will afford an excellent playground for the children. There are 2 7/8 acres of ground in the plot owned by the school.
When the school bond question came up in Concord several months ago, leaders for the bonds declared it was necessary that the colored people be given a better school plant. This was promised if the bonds carried, and the promise has been kept.
There are few as up-to-date colored schools in the South and still fewer that are any better than the new Logan school.
From the front page of The Concord Daily Tribune, March 8, 1924. The 1924 school building is now the Glenn Alternative Center for the Cabarrus County Schools, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Concord High School moved to its current location, situated on a wooded hilltop on Burrage Road in northeast Concord, in August 1967.
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