HISTORY OF CENTER MCMECHEN SCHOOL

      In 1890, B.B. McMechen laid out the first plot of the Town of McMechen, then a sparsely settled school district, enrolling some 80 pupils.  A two-room frame furnished ample accommodations for the school youth of that time.  The growth of the town was so rapid that the frame building became overcrowded and four rooms of what was know as the old brick school building (the old Legion building which was located on Seventh Street) was created and the school transferred into this structure in October of 1891.  Three years later two rooms were added to relieve the crowded conditions.
        Some years after, the school was divided and a four-room building was erected in the northern portion of the town.  The Board of Education provided for the growth of the school by renting rooms in different sections of the town.
         On September 30, 1905, the cornerstone of McMechen School was laid by the Knights of Pythias Lodge #144.  The large brick structure was completed in September of 1906 and was described as "handsome and commodious."  Containing fifteen classrooms, the school began with an enrollment of 792 students in grades one through twelve.  An auditorium with a seating capacity of 690 adorned the third floor of the building.
        In 1913, the McMechen High School Association combined with the Center Benwood High School Association to form Union High School.  The last graduating class from the McMechen High School was in 1912, and the building was renamed Center McMechen Grade School.  In 1955 a new gymnasium was added to the school which served the children of northern and central McMechen.
        In 1977 construction of a new school was begun behind the brick structure.  Students were moved into the new building in January 1978 and the old school was razed in the summer of 1978.
        Center McMechen School now serves the communities of both Benwood and McMechen with an approximate enrollment of 275 students.  The building also houses Marshall County's PMI class and Hearing-Impaired program for RESA VI.
        Center McMechen School had the honor of becoming the first elementary school in Marshall County to be named a West Virginia Exemplary School.