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Remember When, Chattanooga? May Day at Girls Preparatory School 20 years ago

Times Free Press archive photo by John Rawlston / In 2005, spectators watch from the window of a classroom as GPS sophomores perform the May Pole dance. May Day, a Girls Preporatory School tradition dating back to 1914, is a day to celebrate the school's seniors, seen in the upper right, and to name the May Queen, who was Erin Felton in 2005.
Times Free Press archive photo by John Rawlston / In 2005, spectators watch from the window of a classroom as GPS sophomores perform the May Pole dance. May Day, a Girls Preporatory School tradition dating back to 1914, is a day to celebrate the school's seniors, seen in the upper right, and to name the May Queen, who was Erin Felton in 2005. Times Free Press archive photo by John Rawlston / In 2005, spectators watch from the window of a classroom as GPS sophomores perform the May Pole dance. May Day, a Girls Preporatory School tradition dating back to 1914, is a day to celebrate the school's seniors, seen in the upper right, and to name the May Queen, who was Erin Felton in 2005.

By Mark Kennedy 3 min read

The Girls Preparatory School students in the accompanying photo are now in their mid-30s. The year was 2005, and then-GPS senior Erin Felton was the May Queen that year.

The May Pole dance, as seen in the photo, is part of the school’s annual spring celebration that honors graduating seniors. By tradition, sophomores at GPS wrap the May Pole to honor the young women who are about to graduate from the independent school.

This year’s May Day celebration will be at 1 p.m. Thursday, carrying on a tradition that dates to 1914. The May Queen this year is Gwenyth Parks, the school announced.

(READ MORE: Remember When, Chattanooga? Can you name the location of this 1964 May Day celebration?)

In 1914, for the first ever May Day, GPS students rode a street car up Signal Mountain — yes, there was a street car up the mountain then — for a “big picnic with a Greek theme” in the Sylvan Woods area, according to school records.