Dragons’ legacy
New CHS lobby honors 100+ years of history
Class of 1995 Clinton High School graduates, from left, Joey Smith, CHS girls athletic director and teacher Lisa Clark, former CHS teacher Cindy Robinson, and Mandy Halford all helped with the mural of historic photos, shown here behind them in the new CHS lobby. (photo:Ben Pounds )
School staff as well as business and political leaders turned out Tuesday, July 29, for the dedication of the lobby, which also features a plaque showing names of donors to the lobby project.
The school is celebrating more than 100 years of history.
“It’s just really important that we honor those memories,” said Assistant Principal Melissa Fey. “And it helps us establish traditions for the new kids [who] are coming through.”
“We’re bringing back the tradition, pride and history of Clinton High School,” Principal Robbie Herrell said.
He spoke fondly of the lobby’s display case, which includes the 1992 state runner-up football trophy. Herrell graduated in the class of 1993 and played for the Dragons team that won that trophy.
“So it’s special to me,” he said.
The mural is the first thing visitors see. It shows many older class and student photos and a picture of an older CHS building.
People from the CHS Class of 1997 raised funds and put together the mural and the timeline along the hallway.
Joey Smith, a member of that class, designed the mural, and said it was a way to do more than just typical class-reunion activities.
“We wanted to give back, not just get together and eat,” Smith said.
The new space is called the Fox Brothers Lobby after Todd, Bruce and Terry Fox, who, among others, sponsored the renovations.
CHS history
The timeline shows the history of education in Clinton. It starts with Union Academy’s establishment by the General Assembly in 1806. It was as a paid school in a wooden building in the 1820s.
The Civil War destroyed that building, but in 1868, people built a school on Academy Hill, the current site of Clinton Elementary School. It became Clinton High School in the 1880s.
The Clinton City School system took over the school in 1895. The first graduating class of Clinton High School, which included just hree students, was in 1900.
CHS had its first boys and girls basketball teams in 1917. It formed its first football team in 1923, called the Orange and Black Tornadoes, with the first football games played at the fairgrounds, then Town Springs Field.
The school got yet another building, next to its old one, which became Clinton Grammar School, in 1927. That same year, the Anderson County School Board took over.
The school’s most famous moment, its desegregation by the Clinton 12, happened in 1956. A still unknown individual bombed the school with dynamite in 1958, leading to its 800 students going to a then-vacant elementary school in Oak Ridge instead.
Students returned to a rebuilt school in 1960. However, the county Board of Education authorized construction of a new $2.15 million Clinton Senior High School, dedicated in 1968, which formed the start of the current complex.
Many additions were made from 1989-2018 including a library, cafeteria, science labs and a sports complex.
