Coffee County School District history

A site was purchased on the east side of Juniper Street below Market Street, and the cornerstone was laid on September 19, 1837.

The school opened on October 21, 1838, with four professors and sixty-three students.

In November 1839, Alexander Dallas Bache, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, and Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, was elected the first President of Central High School.

President Bache resigned in 1842 to return to his professorship at the University of Pennsylvania, and was succeeded by John Seely Hart, who had been a Professor of Languages at Princeton University.

In 1845, two distinguished English members of the Society of Friends, James H. Tuke and Joseph Corosfield, spent several months in America investigating the school system of the United States.

An Act of Assembly approved on April 9, 1849, provided that:

In September 1900, the school moved to its third location in a newer and larger building located at Broad, Green, Fifteenth, and Brandywine Streets.

During the formal dedication on November 22, 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, addressed the students.

On August 7, 1975, United States District Court Judge Clarence C. Newcomer ruled that Central must admit academically qualified girls starting in the fall term of 1975.

The case eventually reached the United States Supreme Court that, on April 19, 1977, upheld the Third Circuit Court's verdict by a 4 to 4 vote with one abstention.

In August 1983, Judge William M. Marutani of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, ruled that the single-sex admission policy was unconstitutional.

The multimillion-dollar art, science, and physical education addition was officially dedicated on February 17, 1994.

The Barnwell library is now one of the most advanced public school libraries in the United States since the $12 million renovation completed in 2005.