The first schoolhouse in Liberty was a log building erected in 1823. The first public high school, as pictured on the old post card, was erected at the southwest corner of Mill and Gallatin streets in 1894. In 1905 an addition was built to accommodate the 160 students and a new library. Not all of Liberty's teen-agers attended this high school. Some of the girls attended private schools in Liberty, Independence, or Lexington, Mo. There were also high school courses available at the Liberty Ladies College. Some of the town boys took their high school work at William Jewell's male academy. Black students who graduated from the all-black Garrison grade school crossed the Missouri River to attend Kansas City's Lincoln High School. (In later years, high school was added to the Garrison School, for black students. Professor J.A. Gay, principal of the school, still resides in Liberty.) Floy Crews (Mrs. Tom Wornall) graduated from this first Liberty High School in 1906. She says the school faced east on Gallatin and that the office of Mr. Gwinn, superintendent of Liberty's three schools, was just inside the front door. Sid Sandusky and H.S. Simrall, both lawyers, and Dr. E.H. Miller, beloved Liberty physician, comprised the school board. Miss Crews was later hired to teach in the grammar school that stood next door to the high school. After high school, she had graduated from the Liberty Ladies' College. The school system owned the entire block that contained the high school and the grammar school. It extended southeast to the Burlington depot and railroad tracks. Liberty used the old two story red brick high school, as pictured, until a new and larger school was erected at Fairview and Kansas on the site of the old Liberty Ladies College, which was destroyed by fire in 1913. Today the long one-story Franklin School occupies the site of Liberty's first high school. On Oct. 21, 1980, the motorcade of Ronald Reagan, candidate for the U.S. presidency, arrived at the school from the airport, on the way to a political rally and barbecue at the Jewett Fulkerson farm in Clay County. A stop was made at the school grounds, where Reagan talked briefly to students and their parents. It is believed Reagan is the only national presidential candidate to have campaigned in Clay County. Kansas City Times, September 11, 1981.
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