Woodfin is a small town nestled in the Blue ridge Mountains is just north of the Asheville, NC city limits. It borders the French Broad River and still remains a quaint small town environment. Woodfin Elementary School is located on the west side of I-26 in the town of Woodfin. Woodfin Elementary emulates the same quaint small town charm. We have a student population of approximately 155+ and a faculty and staff of 40-50 members. We serve K - 5th grades and the Oasis Program. Our small environment nutures the needs of our diverse population with a feeling of mutual respect and positive growth.
We can trace our original school to a towering old wood structure built around 1911. A picture of the former old Woodfin School is in a copy of the book, My Beloved Woodfin by Harold DeBruhl. We still reside in a portion of the structure built in 1924 and have had renovations over the years. Along with our historical building, Woodfin School has had a prestigious history of former principals to include T.C.Roberson, A.C.Reynolds, Marie Clontz, F.B Chambers and later his son, Ed Chambers. Today we are an ideal environment for the nuturing of new principals. Woodfin also recently retired our Secretary/Bookkeeper,Sarah Gassaway, of 30+ years. As you can see, it is hard to leave our little school.
In our search for some history of Woodfin and our school, we found 2 websites that contribute to our interesting history. One is about the a former student, Roy Fox of Woodfin, designing theBuncombe County Seal in 1920. And the other website is a compelation of interesting historical facts about Woodfin. We are the only town in the united States bearing the name of Woodfin.
Besides the websites mentioned above we found out that our very own Mrs. Allman is married to a graduate of the original Woodfin. We would like to thank Mr. Ray Allman in advance for taking the time to give us the information about our wonderful school. We think you'll soon understand that Woodfin is as special today as it was yesterday!
 Woodfin School consisted of grades 1 through 12. The elementary and all grammar grades were grades 1 through 8 and used a separate building from the high school. This building was a red brick building located approximately 150 – 175 feet from the high school building. NO kindergarten was offered. Also, the only lunch room was located in the basement of the high school building. Therefore, the students had to march regardless of the weather to the high school building. Every teacher had lunch room duty on a daily basis.
The high school building was a red brick building with two stories and a basement level. In the basement were the restrooms, a boiler room and lunchroom. By the way, lunches cost $.20 cents per day and they did not serve pizza of any kind! The boiler room consisted of a coat fired furnace. The janitor would haul cinders out daily with a wheelbarrow to the edge of the ball field.
The 2nd story of the building consisted only of class rooms. No rest rooms were on the 2nd or first floors. Also a balcony wall approximately four feet tall that would allow you to look down on the gymnasium. The first floor also consisted of class rooms. The boys and girls dressing rooms were on each side of the stage area. The sides of the gym only allowed one row of fold up chairs and on each end where the basketball goals were located was a wall (with no padding) but there were never any serious accidents.
The basic classes were: math & algebra, English, science, history, typing and home economics. No foreign language classes were offered. The school only had two school buses and no activity buses due to the fact that the majority of the students lived within walking distance of the school. 
The outside playground for the high school was used for football and baseball. This was red clay with no grass. The cinders on the edge of the football and baseball field caused a few bloody mouths and noses every football game. The football helmets were made of leather with no nose guards or chin straps. The baseball backstop was built with barn siding and chicken wire but served the purpose. The umpires and referees were volunteers. They were not paid for their services.
In 1953, the senior (12th graders) class had 45 students, 29 juniors (11th graders), 24 sophomores (10th graders), and freshmen (9th graders) had 42 students. This totaled 140 students. This was in the year 1953. The last high school graduating class was in 1955. " |
DID YOU KNOW THAT WOODFIN:
. . . at one time was a high school that housed grades 1 - 12!
. . . had many sports including football and baseball
. . . had a gymnasium with wooden floors and a stage for performances at one end.
. . . had its own song (alma mater)!
