History of Schools in Lake Lure

Lake Lure and the rest of the Chimney Rock Township has been home to several schools, from one room cabins to one of the best high schools outside the county seat, but currently there are no schools in Lake Lure. The records of schools for Rutherford County before the Civil War are slim and sketchy, however A. L. Rutker wrote in his autobiography, "The public school system was born in 1842, but was limited to terms of two or three months in which the salary of the teacher ran from $10 to $16 per month. These furnished the only means of securing a rudimentary knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic, which embraced the entire curriculum of that period."  Mr. Rutker further noted that these one room school houses were typically made of round logs that were left bare in the summer for ventilation and then chinked closed in the winter time.   Because of the Civil War, all schools closed in 1865, and for the next several years most schools did not operate.  

 

The first recorded meeting of the Rutherford County School Board was in 1879. There were 106 school districts in the county, 81 white and 25 black. In 1880 the county appropriated 52 cents for each student.  

 

In the early 1900's, the state for the first time set up a fund to help rural counties with their schools. The goal was for each school district to run for at least four months per year. The number of schools in Chimney Rock Township is not clear, but in 1920 Mack Whitesides pushed for the successful vote that created a special school tax and a plan to consolidate the Chimney Rock Township schools. This same year the school year was increased to six months. The new state highway 20 (now US 74A) was under construction, so the new school had to wait until 1922.   The school had three classrooms and an auditorium.   It was built in what is now the middle of the lake. Two trucks were purchased to transport the students. This school was used until the Lake Lure development started, at which time the school met first at a building near the municipal golf course and then moved to the Logan Inn.  

 

In 1926, a magnificent building was constructed at a site just north of what is now Doctor Burch’s office.  In keeping with the spanish colonial style of buildings in Lake Lure, the Lake Lure School had stucco walls, a red tile roof and arches. The school was one of the focal points of the community with a large auditorium and ball fields. At first, the Lake Lure School was only for elementary students, but in 1933 the high school was established and a gymnasium was built.  

 

Mrs. Ann Wilson started teaching at the Lake Lure School in 1951. She remembers that there were around five hundred students at that time.   Ann recalls that the ball teams performed very well for a school their size. The school had baseball, basketball and football teams. Ann’s husband Paul, longtime mayor of Lake Lure, was not only a graduate of the school; he was one of the first student bus drivers in the state. Several former teachers and students said that the food prepared in the cafeteria was especially good.

 

All was well at the school until 1960 when the county decided it would be best to consolidate schools, and the Lake Lure School was closed.   This left the Lake Lure and the rest of the Chimney Rock Township without a school for the first time since the mid 1800's.   The abandoned and neglected school never again saw students and the area lost a vital community focal point that is surely missed.