History of Athens District High School

The article was written by K. Hudson in 1990. The first school of many in Athens was built in 1834 on Elgin Street. The school burnt down 4 years later in 1838 and was not rebuilt. In 1838 a committee was formed to raise 200$ to petition the Canadian government to help build a grammar build a grammar school, the school was built years later in the old quaker meeting house on main street. In 1853 a girls kindergarten class was opened on the upper half of the Joshua Bates house, the girls were taught English, history, geometry, algebra, Greek, French and many others. It was held for 2 years. In 1854 Joshua Bates built another school built a school called the select school it seemed to be a type of private school; the tuition was 3$ a quarter. Classes taught were English, history, geometry, algebra, Greek, French and many others. Boys sat on one side of the class and girls sat on the other. The building was also used as a church. In 1860 the second floor of a stone building was turned into a school and the first floor was a classroom for little ones. The principal of this school was Mr. Holmes. The school was funded by taxpayers some people moved away in anger but, a majority said, “we must have schools for our children.” Taxpayers prioritized their money to fund the school and people went into debt because of it. In 1877 a rule was passed that teachers had to write an exam to be able to teach. Later a model school was made in the town hall which was designated the first of its kind in the province, it was put in the town hall to be near pupils however, it was found to not be a suitable location for the model school. In 1879 a plot of land on church street was purchased to build a new school, the first headmaster of this school was named Alan Bowerman. In 1888 the town was very proud of the schools so, they changed the town name Athens after the Greeks, which Lead to the town switching the name to Athens High School. The name stayed until the 1950’s where the name changed to Athens District High School. In 1905 another model and a public school were destroyed in a fire and were rebuilt immediately. In 1921 the high school met the same fate and people protested to rebuild the high school, eventually in 1925 the high school was rebuilt and cost over 70,000$ and the people of Athens celebrated when it returned. In 1956 the school was renamed to Athens District High School. In 1959 the school made some additions to the school such as more classrooms, washrooms, a library, and a lab. These addition’s cost 140,000$. Later in 1963 they added a gym. Athens public school continued their classes in the brick building, town hall also held classes, but due to over crowding they built another school called Pineview in 1968. And lastly the church sponsored  a private school in 19