Photo of The Month – Jul 2002

Early School

Picture contributor: Dena Watkins Chandler

There are two rows, front to back, of eight rough, home-made desks with an aisle running down the center. Two students are seated at each desk. School teacher strands in rear wearing dark floor-length skirt and prim white blouse. — Early School

In the earliest days of Cliffside, before a school had been built, a section of the Cloth Room in the mill was curtained off to serve as a classroom. Later, classes were held in the store building. Notes for the photo tell us that Clarence Watkins is one of the students, and that Winnie Davis Shelby is the teacher. Photo circa 1907.

(Fire buckets like those mounted on the columns were still present in some sections of the mill into the 1950s .)