Home to Cookeville High School from 1914 to 1924

In 1913, Tennessee became the first Southern state to enact a statewide compulsory school attendance law, mandating that every child between the ages of 8 and 14 and every child between the ages of 14 and 16 who could not read or write or who was not employed in some legal occupation attend some school, either public or private.  In 1914, Putnam County High School, the first public high school in the county, consolidated with Dixie College (later known as Tennessee Polytechnic Institute and today known as Tennessee Technological University) to share facilities in the Dixie College building.  Putnam County High School opened for its first term on Monday, August 31, 1914.  All students in the county were admitted free to the high school.  Two years later, the high school consolidated with Tennessee Polytechnic Institute.  The high school remained with TPI until 1924, when the college began dropping a year of high school each year as it added a year's college work to become a four-year college.  By 1928, all high school classes had been moved to the Cookeville City School.

Photograph courtesy of the Cookeville History Museum