June 3, 2022 Coats Museum News
Here’s hoping you enjoyed reading last week about some of the early schools in Grove Township in Harnett County. You read that Ennis #1, Gregory #2 and Coats #3 were three of the early schools in Grove District White Schools. It would take pages for me to share the complete history of all the original schools that were in the Grove Township Districts. If a reader is very interested, information about the early schools can be found in a book published in 1985 when the Coats School Reunion Project published “Together We Leave.” Having written the section on the Grove schools when the internet was not available to me, I can’t promise that there is not more information out there to which I did not have access. Paper records from the HCBOE were very useful as were old interviews, bits and pieces written by and shared by individuals whose families were connected to those schools. The “Harnett County Heritage” book published in 1993 also contains a thorough section of the Evolution of Education in Harnett County.
Last week you read that Coats District #3 had added a two story brick building with an auditorium in 1935-1936. What merited spending $65,000 for this new building following one of the worst economic times in our country? Keep in mind that there had to be compelling evidence of need. Could WPA workers or funds be used to build the building?
Were other parts of Harnett County also in dire need of new buildings? What merited Coats District # 3 getting the funds?
I do know that in 1927-28 Penny-Rock Ridge Grove District #7 consolidated with Coats. Parker District #5 and Sorrell District 6A and 25 students from Barclaysville came in 1930-31. Then in 1933-34, Gregory 2A consolidated into District # 3 Coats.
To make the situation direr was that the District #4 B Turlington students would enter District #3 in 1936. Do you see why District #3 needed more buildings? We must not forget it was in 1919 that all children between 8 and 12 years of age were mandated to go to school. Considering the large increase in enrollment, do you now understand why the District # 3 Coats auditorium in the 1920-21 brick building was converted to classrooms in 1931? Aren’t you glad that it had a basement that provided some space? Thank goodness that second graders could go to classes in the two room wooden building later called the “Goat House.” We might also add that in 1924-25 Coats District #3 was accredited as a high school and had three graduates. Parents no longer had to shop for textbooks after 1934, for in 1935, students could rent their textbooks from the state. Does anyone remember having to pay book fees and book damages?
It is well that the 1936 building was completed because m ore students would be on the way in 1940 when all students between the ages of 14-16 had compulsory attendance in a nine month term school at Coats District #3 which had been raised from the eight month term in 1930.
You will have to admit that we have come a long way since educating our children in barns, dual-purposed church-schools, and one room schools and in a few cases taught by someone who was nearly the same age as the older students. History shares of the time when older boys took on janitorial jobs and students were happy to have a sweet potato and ham or sausage biscuit for lunch and if lucky some hot chocolate warmed on the wooden stove in the classroom.
We have a picture of the Coats Consolidated School with a beautiful lady standing beside a sign which had Coats on it. We are told that it is Miss Hilda Rose Upchurch who was later called Mrs. Lee by Coats School students. In the background there appears to be a small wood structure directly behind the 1921 building. Carsie Denning, Sr. shared that he had classes in that building as an older student and he referred to it as the Goat House. Hence the mystery of the Goat House lives on.
Is the current museum the “Goat House” or is the building in the picture the “Goat House”? I do know that the Harnett County News, August 10, 1929 issue shared that bids were received for the building of a two- room school building for white students at Coats. R.B. Grimes of Angier was awarded the contract with the lowest bid. The amount to be paid for materials and for labor of the said building was $950.00. The size of the building was to be 22 by 36 feet inside measurements.
That was 1929. Later the 1936 brick building with auditorium was added to the campus. It would be ten years later in 1946 that the Vocational Agriculture was built using some of the materials from the two-room building built by Mr. Grimes. Mr. M.O. Phillips and some of his students would actually work on the new building according to information shared with me. Mr. Joe Penny would buy the tin from the same building.
In early years, teachers were required to find their own lodging while teaching school. Many of the people in the community would open a room for a teacher to live. In 1948, some teachers at Coats would have a place to reside near the Coats School for it was in that year that the Coats teacherage was constructed. In fact, later many of those who lived there were young married teachers and even Principal Mr. Joe Hawley’s family resided there.
That teacherage would later be sold and used as the Coats Town Hall and Library. Currently it is the Destiny Lodge for renters.
In 1950 the brick Oakdale Grove District #1 would be the last school to consolidate with the Coats District #3. This would be the same year that a band was reorganized and another year later Maynard Moran would write the school song for Coats School. Then in 1951-52 the gymnasium and first primary classrooms were built beside the Vo. Ag. Building.
It is not uncommon for today’s schools to be large enough to educate over 2,000 students on a campus. Guess when the enrollment peaked in the Coats District #3. It was in 1954 that the enrollment was 1,042. I want to recall that the auditorium would seat 858 people so that meant that the entire student body was unable to meet in the auditorium at the same time.
It would be in 1957 that a brick cafeteria was built and additional primary classrooms were connected to the ones built in 1951-52. You read earlier that students carried their lunches to schools but later in the mid 1930’s at Coats School sandwiches and soup were available for 10 cents or so. Later a cafeteria was in the basement of the 1920 -21 brick building where a large room was for cooking with a dining area for student s and across the hall was another dining room. It must have been amazing how the students in 1957 reacted to a more modern, separate building for eating. Wonder if the home economics students were happy to no longer prepare some meals for sale?
In the seventies, the Coats Grove #3 would again see numbers surpass 1000 when all 5 year olds were allowed to go to school. The face of the campus showed marked changes when mobile huts, bleachers and covered sidewalks and landscaping changed and enhanced the campus. All huts and classrooms were filled to capacity to accommodate the large enrollments and special programs of remedial math and reading. Course additions offered horticulture, photography, family living, health occupations, speech, band, drama and journalism. Guidance counselors, speech therapists, teacher’s aides and a police liaison were employed in the seventies.
The last Grove district school to consolidate with Coats District #3 had been in 1950 when District #1 Oakdale students were sent to Coats. In 1985 the Coats High School graduated its last high school students. The Coats students henceforth were consolidated to Triton. In 1999, the Coats Erwin Middle School would open and take the Coats Middle School students and then in 2002, the Coats Elementary School would take away the elementary students and leave the old Coats School campus void of students bringing to an end a century old campus left to be sold by the county .
Thank you to the CHS Class of 1958 for giving a memorial for Rebecca Ennis Williford and to Tommy Ennis for bringing it by the museum and to H.L. for remembering our nephew David Meadows, a young newspaper publisher from Missouri, who loved visiting our Coats Museum.
Here’s hoping you enjoyed reading last week about some of the early schools in Grove Township in Harnett County. You read that Ennis #1, Gregory #2 and Coats #3 were three of the early schools in Grove District White Schools. It would take pages for me to share the complete history of all the original schools that were in the Grove Township Districts. If a reader is very interested, information about the early schools can be found in a book published in 1985 when the Coats School Reunion Project published “Together We Leave.” Having written the section on the Grove schools when the internet was not available to me, I can’t promise that there is not more information out there to which I did not have access. Paper records from the HCBOE were very useful as were old interviews, bits and pieces written by and shared by individuals whose families were connected to those schools. The “Harnett County Heritage” book published in 1993 also contains a thorough section of the Evolution of Education in Harnett County.
Last week you read that Coats District #3 had added a two story brick building with an auditorium in 1935-1936. What merited spending $65,000 for this new building following one of the worst economic times in our country? Keep in mind that there had to be compelling evidence of need. Could WPA workers or funds be used to build the building?
Were other parts of Harnett County also in dire need of new buildings? What merited Coats District # 3 getting the funds?
I do know that in 1927-28 Penny-Rock Ridge Grove District #7 consolidated with Coats. Parker District #5 and Sorrell District 6A and 25 students from Barclaysville came in 1930-31. Then in 1933-34, Gregory 2A consolidated into District # 3 Coats.
To make the situation direr was that the District #4 B Turlington students would enter District #3 in 1936. Do you see why District #3 needed more buildings? We must not forget it was in 1919 that all children between 8 and 12 years of age were mandated to go to school. Considering the large increase in enrollment, do you now understand why the District # 3 Coats auditorium in the 1920-21 brick building was converted to classrooms in 1931? Aren’t you glad that it had a basement that provided some space? Thank goodness that second graders could go to classes in the two room wooden building later called the “Goat House.” We might also add that in 1924-25 Coats District #3 was accredited as a high school and had three graduates. Parents no longer had to shop for textbooks after 1934, for in 1935, students could rent their textbooks from the state. Does anyone remember having to pay book fees and book damages?
It is well that the 1936 building was completed because m ore students would be on the way in 1940 when all students between the ages of 14-16 had compulsory attendance in a nine month term school at Coats District #3 which had been raised from the eight month term in 1930.
You will have to admit that we have come a long way since educating our children in barns, dual-purposed church-schools, and one room schools and in a few cases taught by someone who was nearly the same age as the older students. History shares of the time when older boys took on janitorial jobs and students were happy to have a sweet potato and ham or sausage biscuit for lunch and if lucky some hot chocolate warmed on the wooden stove in the classroom.
We have a picture of the Coats Consolidated School with a beautiful lady standing beside a sign which had Coats on it. We are told that it is Miss Hilda Rose Upchurch who was later called Mrs. Lee by Coats School students. In the background there appears to be a small wood structure directly behind the 1921 building. Carsie Denning, Sr. shared that he had classes in that building as an older student and he referred to it as the Goat House. Hence the mystery of the Goat House lives on.
Is the current museum the “Goat House” or is the building in the picture the “Goat House”? I do know that the Harnett County News, August 10, 1929 issue shared that bids were received for the building of a two- room school building for white students at Coats. R.B. Grimes of Angier was awarded the contract with the lowest bid. The amount to be paid for materials and for labor of the said building was $950.00. The size of the building was to be 22 by 36 feet inside measurements.
That was 1929. Later the 1936 brick building with auditorium was added to the campus. It would be ten years later in 1946 that the Vocational Agriculture was built using some of the materials from the two-room building built by Mr. Grimes. Mr. M.O. Phillips and some of his students would actually work on the new building according to information shared with me. Mr. Joe Penny would buy the tin from the same building.
In early years, teachers were required to find their own lodging while teaching school. Many of the people in the community would open a room for a teacher to live. In 1948, some teachers at Coats would have a place to reside near the Coats School for it was in that year that the Coats teacherage was constructed. In fact, later many of those who lived there were young married teachers and even Principal Mr. Joe Hawley’s family resided there.
That teacherage would later be sold and used as the Coats Town Hall and Library. Currently it is the Destiny Lodge for renters.
In 1950 the brick Oakdale Grove District #1 would be the last school to consolidate with the Coats District #3. This would be the same year that a band was reorganized and another year later Maynard Moran would write the school song for Coats School. Then in 1951-52 the gymnasium and first primary classrooms were built beside the Vo. Ag. Building.
It is not uncommon for today’s schools to be large enough to educate over 2,000 students on a campus. Guess when the enrollment peaked in the Coats District #3. It was in 1954 that the enrollment was 1,042. I want to recall that the auditorium would seat 858 people so that meant that the entire student body was unable to meet in the auditorium at the same time.
It would be in 1957 that a brick cafeteria was built and additional primary classrooms were connected to the ones built in 1951-52. You read earlier that students carried their lunches to schools but later in the mid 1930’s at Coats School sandwiches and soup were available for 10 cents or so. Later a cafeteria was in the basement of the 1920 -21 brick building where a large room was for cooking with a dining area for student s and across the hall was another dining room. It must have been amazing how the students in 1957 reacted to a more modern, separate building for eating. Wonder if the home economics students were happy to no longer prepare some meals for sale?
In the seventies, the Coats Grove #3 would again see numbers surpass 1000 when all 5 year olds were allowed to go to school. The face of the campus showed marked changes when mobile huts, bleachers and covered sidewalks and landscaping changed and enhanced the campus. All huts and classrooms were filled to capacity to accommodate the large enrollments and special programs of remedial math and reading. Course additions offered horticulture, photography, family living, health occupations, speech, band, drama and journalism. Guidance counselors, speech therapists, teacher’s aides and a police liaison were employed in the seventies.
The last Grove district school to consolidate with Coats District #3 had been in 1950 when District #1 Oakdale students were sent to Coats. In 1985 the Coats High School graduated its last high school students. The Coats students henceforth were consolidated to Triton. In 1999, the Coats Erwin Middle School would open and take the Coats Middle School students and then in 2002, the Coats Elementary School would take away the elementary students and leave the old Coats School campus void of students bringing to an end a century old campus left to be sold by the county .
Thank you to the CHS Class of 1958 for giving a memorial for Rebecca Ennis Williford and to Tommy Ennis for bringing it by the museum and to H.L. for remembering our nephew David Meadows, a young newspaper publisher from Missouri, who loved visiting our Coats Museum.