Editor’s note: second in a two-part series.
(READ MORE: Local History: From farmland to the Town of Signal Mountain)
The Signal Mountain Elementary School has a rich history, and alumni are planning a big centennial celebration on April 25.
Between 1923 and 1925, children in Signal Mountain were informally taught in a small brick building known as the Hollywood School, near the trolley station of the same name.
The facility was soon outgrown, prompting the town to construct the Signal Mountain Grammar School on Kentucky Avenue in 1926. The building early on doubled as a community gathering place. The first church in the town, Signal Mountain Presbyterian, met in the school building until its congregation was able to construct a chapel in about 1928. The town library was housed there from 1930 until 1970. Today, the school is the oldest remaining public building on Walden’s Ridge. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.