Photos From the Past
One-room log cabin school house located on Washington Street where the Seventh Day Adventist Church now stands.
Judson College - the first Hendersonville High
Noterman Property purchased by the School Board. Hendersonville High School was moved here in the Fall of 1919. It remained the high school until September 1926.
Stories from the Past
TWO WARS CLAIM 10 DANA STUDENTS
Dana High school has contributed through the years many men and women who served their country in various branches of military services. Ten young men -- eight in WWII and two in the Korean Conflict -- gave their lives in the line of duty between 1942 and 1953. Many others returned, thankful that they survived.
Shortly after WWII, a bronze plaque was donated to Dana School. It is a mystery as to who organized the purchases of the memorial but some think it was a joint effort between teachers and alumni. Some remembered that it was displayed in the outer office of Principal C. F. Jervis, while many others simply don't remember it at all. It seems to be just a missing piece of history of the old Dana School.
The durable plaque survived the great fire of the early '70s that destroyed and leveled the school. After a demolition crew recovered it, the plaque was given to Carolyn Pettet Brown, Class of '57, one of the crew members, because one of the names on the plaque was that of her Uncle Lowell Love.
The beautiful design contains a star in the middle at the top. It is bordered with olive leaves and has the following engraving:
In memory of Those who paid the supreme sacrifice in World WarII
Lowell E. Love Clarence Duncan Bud Staton Dickie King
Glen Gibbs James Gibbs Glover Jackson Jack Burgess
In the spring of 1960, an estimated 500 persons stood for a moment of silence to honor these young men during a reunion and ceremony marking the end of the Dana High School era.
"Don't forget the boys who went to Dana, and then went across the waters to fight and gave their lives that you and I are able to gather in a place like this tonight and do as we please and think as we please," former 7th grade teacher Frank FitzSimons told the audience that was packed into the old school auditorium. "They went cheerfully, but they never returned like some of you who are more lucky. I am particularly thinking of one that you all remember as little Buddy Staton. Buddy was always of good humor - fat, jolly and laughing. He was always in some mischief - harmless as it was. But when the time came and the chips were down, little Buddy Staton answered the call, and somewhere across the Mediterranean Sea in the dark night, Buddy disappeared and has never been heard from. He is one of the reasons that we are able to still live in a free country. I know that when Buddy was going down, the ship that he was flying went down, that he was possibly smiling and was just as carefree then as he was when he was in the 7th grade and I was paddling where he sat."
A decade later in the Korean War, Edward Ward, Class of '49, and Earl Saltz, Class of '50, also paid the supreme sacrifice with their lives. Their memory remains in our hearts too.
The WWII plaque will be donated to the Henderson County Education Foundation where it will be preserved for future generations.
Another graduate made her mark in the military, Nurse Lola E. Drake of the Class of '43. She may have been the first Dana High School female to achieve the rank of captain in the United States Air Force. One of her duty stations was at the hospital at Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, SC. She died in 2001 of natural causes in Hendersonville.
Balfour School Auditorium Tuesday, April 25, 1939, 10 A.M. James Hammond sent Tom Orr, President of HCEF, his Seventh Grade Commencement Program. R. G. Anders was the Superintendent at the time.
East Flat Rock Elementary School 1950-1951 Eighth Grade Class of Glenn C. Marlow
