Oak Grove School, 1916 and 1927
Oak Grove School of DeKalb County is included in the 1916 book, “Educational Surveys of DeKalb County and Union County, Georgia.” Each school has a photo and a general description of the school grounds, building and teachers (or teacher).
In 1916, H. T. Murphey was principal of the school and one teacher, Miss Essie Jones, is listed by name. The school had two teachers for seven grades and 67 students.
Oak Grove School was built on a one acre lot, described as mostly grove. There was a school garden.
Oak Grove School, 1916. All the photographs in this book are small and out of focus, but this might be the worst.
The building was valued at $1,500 in 1916 and included two classrooms and a cloak room. This school also had one toilet, “in good condition.”
Oak Grove School was described as well-lighted, painted inside and outside, with homemade desks. They had a good blackboard, maps, globes, pictures, and a library, but did not have a reference dictionary.
Clubs included a pig, canning, and school improvement club. The above is all the information that is available from the 1916 survey.
Oak Grove School was (and still is) on a road by the same name, between Briarcliff and LaVista Roads. Oak Grove Methodist Church was located nearby when this survey was conducted. According to Vivian Price’s “History of DeKalb County: 1822-1900,” the church began in 1836, first meeting under a brush arbor until a log building was constructed. Original families of the church include Akin, McElroy, Lively, Pennell, Jones, Loyd and Anderson. Two and a half acres were sold by James Francis Akins to church trustees in 1888.
This 1927 photo of Oak Grove School appears in the book, “Vanishing DeKalb: A Pictorial History by DeKalb Historical Society, 1985.” The description indicates the photograph is of an 1880 school building, still in use in 1927. Among the names of the students are several Akin children. The bare feet of children attending schools in what would have been the country at the time is quite common.