Beechwood

In 1860, a small group of citizens met at the home of Alfred Pope Sandford, on the Dixie Highway about four miles from the then city limits of Covington.  The met to discuss starting a public common graded school.  Attending the meeting were Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Pope Sandford, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Senour, Robert Mr. and Mrs. Heming, Mr. and Mrs. Clinton Kennedy, Mr. Elijah Vickers, Mr. Samuel Rich, Mr. Robert Hemingway and Mr. Henry Requardt.

A lot for the school building was donated by Sandford, and that lot is part of the school site.  Beechwood has subsequently purchased lots to the north, and the west of the this original lot.  The original frame house was built in the spring of 1860.  They had two sessions of school per year - one in the spring and one in the winter.  The first trustees were Sandford, Senour, Heming, Kennedy and John Perkins.

A 1908 Kentucky law put all county schools, except graded common schools, under the direction of a county board of education.  Since Beechwood was established as a graded common school, it was exempt from he law.

The first school building was in use from 1860 to 1934.  In 1914, they spent $1,871 and remodeled it.  A second building was built in 1927 to accommodate the growing number of pupils. The second building stood in the front yard of the old, and had four rooms.  They added two more rooms in 1934, razed the old building, and added an additional three room for the high school.  This building is the one identified as the Beechwood School, 1940 on the Beechwood pictures page.  The gymnasium / auditorium was built by Mr. John Hemmer, completed in 1937, at a cost of $22,781.

Two years of high school were added to the eight grades in 1914.  They added additional teachers in 1916 and 1923 to get to a four year high school, although enrollment did not always provide students in all four high school grades.  The first high school graduation class was in 1935.

Literally all of the information above has been extracted from - and is accurate only up to - a 1940 thesis at the University of Cincinnati by Woodford Raymond Davis, called The History and Development of the Beechwood Graded and High Schools, Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky.