Paris School Days: 150 Years of Excellence in Education

Paris City School Building on 7th Street (1890-1907).

The Paris City School opened on September 11, 1865. The earliest classes were composed of white students only. Professor Julius Herrick served as the first principal, supervising 3 teachers and 130 students during the first year. School attendance was free of charge to the children of Paris residents and taxpayers while students from the county had to pay tuition. Latin, Greek and mathematics were among the subjects offered.
The first Paris City School building was in the old Bourbon Academy building, located on Pleasant Street. A two-story brick building was constructed in 1806-1807 that accommodated one hundred students. The trustees of the City of Paris acquired the property in 1856 and built a new school. During the Civil War, the Federal Army occupied the building as a hospital.
The City School building on Pleasant Street burned on January 18, 1889. In 1890, a new white city school was erected on 7th Street on the same property where the current middle and high schools are located. The Richardsonian Romanesque style building had ten rooms and cost $25,000. Nearly 450 students, including 60 high school students, attended the new school in 1890. By contrast, the black school educated 350 students in the same year.

Paris Western School yearbook cover

By 1875, the "colored city school" system had organized and 50 students, a record high, were enrolled at the Western School under the supervision of Principal J.C. Grace. Student enrollment at the white school also was at a record high of 175 students.
By 1880, the Western school enrolled 1,020 students, a testament to the value that black parents placed on education. As more children advanced through the elementary grades, the need for a high school spurred the establishment of Western High School by 1888, one of the few black high schools in the state.

Paris Western High Class of 1933

Black students attended schools sponsored by the Freedmen's Bureau or by local black churches in the first few years after emancipation. In 1850, Mrs. Emily Tubman financed the Tubman Free School for black students that first was housed in the Bourbon Academy building and later at a location near 8th and High Streets. Black students were added to the city system by 1875. The location of the earliest black city school is unknown but it may have been where the Tubman school stood. The black school was eventually housed in a seven-room school building located at 7th Street and Western Way. It was appropriately named the Western School. The Western School building served as the school for all black students until 1963 when the high school classes were desegregated. The Western school housed the junior high grades from 1966 to 1970. The building was torn down in the 1970s.

1928 Postcard of the Paris City School main building and junior high building.

A disastrous fire caused by a faulty furnace completely destroyed the 7th Street school building and most of the contents on January 28,1907. Classes were held temporarily in the Courthouse basement, the Public Library and four commercial buildings until a new school was built. The school board hired architect H.L. Rowe of Lexington to construct a new school with hardwood floors, electric lights and steam heat at a cost of $43,000. It had four columns and a prominent dome. Upon its completion in 1908, it accommodated 750 white students in all the grades from elementary to high school.
In 1923, the white junior high school was organized and housed on the second floor of the existing school building. In 1927, an addition to the school building became the home of the high school where it has remained since that time. A gymnasium was added in 1928 and later converted to the library after the current gymnasium was built in 1992.

New Southside school and gymnasium 1940

In 1939, the Southside Elementary School and Gymnasium were completed on South Main Street. Southside served as an elementary school until 1966 when a new elementary school and library opened on the 7th Street property. The expansion of school buildings was necessary to accommodate the increased enrollment due to the integration of the black and white schools that began with the high school in the 1963-1964 academic year.

Paris Schools Superintendent, Lee Kirkpatrick, 1950 Paris yearbook.

After a series of superintendents who usually stayed for just a few years, renowned educator Lee Kirkpatrick took the post of superintendent in 1918 and stayed until his retirement in 1953. His 35 year tenure is considered the "Golden Age of Education" for the Paris city school system. Educated at Columbia and Harvard Universities, he was a superb administrator, master psychologist, incisive judge of character and strict disciplinarian. Kirkpatrick believed that an educated citizenry was essential to progress and a successful democracy.
Under his supervision and mirroring progressive educational initiatives taking place across the country, the Paris school curriculum stressed classical subjects, requiring that high school students study four years of Latin, four years of English, three years of math, three years of history, two years of science and two years of modern languages.
Kirkpatrick was no less rigorous when it came to the educational levels of his faculty. He stressed the completion of four-year degrees for all faculty and graduate degrees for his high school teachers. He preferred prestigious schools like Princeton, Harvard, Columbia University and the Sorbonne for the white teachers and encouraged the black teachers to attend the best colleges that they could. By 1928, all of the teachers at the Western School had four-year degrees. Some of them attended summer sessions at the University of Chicago, Simmons University and Wilberforce (Ohio) and earned graduate degrees.
The retirement of Lee Kirkpatrick brought an end to an era that witnessed the development of the Paris City School system into a first-class educational program. He left as his legacy a school system that had been accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools since 1915. His teachers had a higher percentage of graduate degrees than many other school systems. Paris students often went on to illustrious careers and colleges.

6th grade music teacher Julia O'Brien Paris City School 1896

Music was considered an integral part of a well-rounded education from the earliest beginnings of the Paris city school system. Miss Julia Lewis was one of the first music teachers. One of the school's prized possessions was a piano. Glee clubs and choruses were formed early in the school's history and a band was organized.

Thomas Siwicki

The marching band is the most visible and prominent aspect of the school's music program. Thomas Siwicki directed the marching band from the early 1950s until his retirement in 1982. Under his tenure, the marching band went beyond just playing halftime programs at football games and advanced into the highly challenging arena of band competitions. Sawicki initiated the practice of taking the band on international trips to places like Austria and Canada to play in competitions and experience foreign travel. His successor, Philip Grigson, continued the proud marching band tradition from 1986 to 2012. The Paris Marching Band continues to be an integral part of many students' school experience.

Paris High School State Championship Debate team, 1925

The organization of a wide variety of academic clubs was a natural outgrowth of the high value the school system placed on academic accomplishments.
Lee Kirkpatrick was particularly proud of the Debate Team which won many awards and competitions in the 1920s. Kirkpatrick made sure the team's many accomplishments were prominently highlighted in the local paper.

Paris Western teacher & Principal, Mary E. Kellis

The Supreme Court's ruling in Brown vs. Topeka School Board in 1954 paved the way for the integration of public schools in the country. In late 1954, the City School Board selected an Integration committee with attorney Grover Baldwin as its chair and Western teacher Mary E. Kellis as secretary.

Paris Western music teacher and students

Desegregation of the Paris City Schools began with the sophomores, juniors and seniors in the 1963-64 academic year and was completed over the next three years for the entire district.
Black students made up about 14% of the high school student population. Desegregation required many adjustments for both races since black and white students had not only attended separate schools but also separate churches and places of entertainment. Most students did not have friends outside of their race prior to integration. The black students gave up their school colors and mascot and had to adjust to white teachers. Sports offered the best outlet for extracurricular involvement by the incoming black male students but girls had fewer options. Future Homemakers was popular as well as musical clubs, the French and Spanish Club and the Speech Club.
Integration of the remaining grades took place during the 1964-1965, 1965-1966 and 1966-1967 academic years. In the 1966-1967 academic year, tenured black teachers were offered positions on the faculty.

Hopewell Museum

Hopewell Museum

Paris School Days: 150 Years of Excellence in Education