Piedmont Junior High School records

Junior high schools in Charlotte, North Carolina first began to develop in the 1920s. According to Dr. Garringer, who came to the Charlotte Public School system at that time, the school board hired him to become the new principal for the yet-to-be-built Central High School. At about the same time, the board also gave approval to plan and build Piedmont Junior High School, the first junior high school in the state. In part, Garringer was to oversee the construction of the new school facilities, which were designed “in view of the needs of pupils of that age.” These buildings, ultra-modern by the standards of the times, included departmental teaching, science labs, studios for both art and music, libraries and more. Such an ambitious undertaking required the passage of a two million dollar bond issue. Piedmont Junior High was built on a seven acre lot, had twenty-two classrooms within forty eight thousand square feet and cost over $380,000. PJHS opened its doors to students in December of 1925, with Uhlman Alexander serving as its first principal. Most of the students came from the Elizabeth and Country Club sections of Charlotte. By 1928, the system employed 425 teachers and had an enrollment of over fourteen thousand students. The curriculum included Latin, French and Spanish. Though disciplinary problems were said to be rare, the playground, described as a “sea of red mud,” prevented the kids from using it. Instead, boys would often sneak off to a nearby luncheonette and play pool. The Quill was the name of the school newspaper, which eventually became the yearbook. The next big event to occur in twentieth century public school history was racial desegregation, in 1957. However, once this policy was introduced, white families began moving to other districts such as Hawthorne and Eastway, until Piedmont became predominantly African American. In 1973, remodeling and new building additions, consisting of new science labs, art and music rooms, a new library and offices, increased the building size by nearly twenty thousand feet, at a cost of nearly half a million dollars.