---

"Committed to Excellence"

---

With a background of private schools dating back to the 1860's, Collierville High School has a rich heritage. The Collierville Male Academy and a separate school in the old Methodist Church are known to have been in session before 1870 in which year construction was begun on Bellevue Female College at the present site of Collierville Middle School. By 1880 Miss Ann * Holden had established a school for girls and two years later Professor Perkins began a semi-military school for boys. By 1895 Miss Holden's school had become the property of Shelby County and was operated as a school for boys, with the girls going to Bellevue Female College. These two schools were consolidated in 1905 as Collierville High School in a building erected by Shelby County on the Bellevue Female College site.

For the next ninety years Collierville High School remained at the corner of Poplar and Walnut. In the Fall of 1995 a new chapter in the history of the school was opened when CHS and Collierville Middle School switched campuses. The $14,500,000 addition to the Byhalia and Frank Road site has made Collierville High School the largest facility in Shelby County.

The traditions of the old school came along with the establishment of the High School at its new campus location and this is symbolized by the placement of the "Old School Bell and Corner Stone" of the original school. It is best summed up by the inscription on the plaque which reads:

"This bell was first rung in 1897 at Bellevue College at the corner of Poplar and Walnut. In 1905 the Shelby County School System took over the college facility and established Collierville High School. For the quarter of a century, until the building housing the bell tower was razed, students in Collierville started and ended their school day with the tolling of this bell. ---Let us always carry on the tradition of excellence --- born in our historic past."

Some additional information provided by a visitor to our website
(Anne Babin, Class of 1948):

"The founder of the first school was Miss ANNA (not Ann) HOLDEN. The school was in a house on S. Rowlett, near the Cooper Street railroad crossing. The house was demolished in the early 1980s. It had classrooms on each side of a long hallway. The kitchen and dining room were in the very back. I know this, because long after the school no longer used, my parents rented that house for a few months while our 'new' house was being built ."

 

If you have any special infomation to add to this history page, please email the webmaster.