An elegant, attractive and well-used community center is this former community school at Huffines.
The Huffines School in the early years of its 153 years of community support and pride.
The Huffines School, built in 1937 by the WPA at a cost of $18,000. The center portion held the gymnasium. The cafeteria was on the right side and is all that remains today.
One thing to notice about community gatherings in the former Huffines School building is that there’s plenty of food, even when not called for. Here this table is described as “finger food.”
Mary Manley is a Huffines community leader who leads in promoting the community’s busy and well-used former school. She’s standing before quilts which were made in this building and in behalf of former students.
Illine Blizzard, right, stands and smiles. She’s just been introduced as the oldest alumni of the Huffines School attending a reunion last week. She’s 95
The former Huffines community school of more than 150 years tells its history in big letters.This building was built in 1937, and the members of the school board that year are etched on the stone beneath the sign.
Huffines School is in need of support
The community of Huffines has supported its school for 153 years, and sometimes it has been a struggle. This past weekend, some 100 alumni returned to attend a school-wide reunion and heard the bell ring for support.
The Huffines school, formed in 1872, closed in 1957 by consolidating with Atlanta.
“We do need support,” the former students heard community leader Mary Manley say in remarks before a noontime lunch of finger food.
Such a dinner, reception, fun and serious messaging from the school’s community club is typical for Huffines and the school. The building is Huffines’ center, a welcome rust red reminder of what the community once was. Across the highway is the village’s elegant Baptist Church with its white-fence and well-cared for cemetery.
The main issue is that while Huffines is one of the most attractive remaining public school buildings in the county and a perfect place for family or community gatherings, the building needs maintenance and repair. There’s plenty of parking, seating and memories. The building was the former cafeteria. Other parts of the school, such as gymnasium, etc., were not saved. But tables, chairs and cooking implements from the cafeteria days are still here in this gathering room. It is a school for everyone now.
And so, Manley, when she spoke, pointed this out to the former students.
“We have this facility for rent at $75 per day or free if for such a matter as a family funeral reception,” Manley said. “We keep it as a community service, but we have floor, walls and plumbing which are in need of repair. We’re meeting to keep our school. We can do or get the work done if we just have the support.”
That informative call was the reason for this past weekend’s homecoming. Everyone had been invited to come back just for the mingling. No other special reason, and the response was surprising and encouraging.
A bit of history for Huffines and its school is that Huffines sits upon a brief rise of land that is like a mesa located between Atlanta and McLeod. The community has its own identity, however, and is neither Atlanta or McLeod.
“We were called the Huffines Hicks,” one former resident said.
Huffines was one of the few in the county which didn’t lose all of its school buildings following consolidations that occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. The cafeteria was saved when in 1957 a group met to ask for the building from the Atlanta ISD which owned it.
“An association was formed to care for the building when the school district said we could have it rent free if the community took care of it. Later, I am told, the building was sold to the association, I think for $10,” Manley said in an interview.
The cafeteria was put back in shape to be used for bingo, music, food and get-togethers. Two classrooms were remodeled into a quilting center.
“The school had been built by the WPA in 1937,” Manley said, “For some years, students went to elementary school here and then to McLeod for grades 9 to 12. When consolidation with Atlanta began, my class went first to Bivins for the fifth grade, and then in 1958 the next year we were the first class to go to the opening of the new Atlanta school building on High School Lane.”
On the school’s stone marker outside are the names for the 1937 District 19 school leaders and board members. These are Supt. A.D. Cates and board members J.B. Little, A. J. Squyres, J.A. Dees, J.E. Waites, H.S. Parker, W.J. Endsley and U.D. Tolleson.
At the conclusion of the reunion, Manley announced some $515 had been made this day as contributed by the attendees.
“The day was very, very successful, but we have a need for some $7,000 to $8,000 for interior repairs. We’ll ring the school bell like this again next year.”