The Hollywood High School Fire 1927

By Dennis Wolf

The Hollywood High School at 1346 Bryan Street was destroyed by fire at 11:00 p.m. on Friday night, July 29, 1927, as approximately 3,000 people watched the fire.

Land adjacent to Hollywood Park was purchased for the school in 1922 for $4,000 ($75,072 in 2024 dollars).[i]  The building opened for students in December 1923 with an enrollment of 600 students and 19 faculty members.  The school was formally dedicated on April 4, 1924.  The total construction cost was $135,000 ($2,489,219 in 2024 dollars).[ii]  Memphis Mayor Rowlett Paine was invited to speak, and he said, “If the city, in its expansion, should take Hollywood into its limits, it would have a school there that it could be proud of as a member of the city system.”[iii]  How ironic, given that Memphis would refuse the county financial assistance after the fire.  The residents of the area had worked diligently for several years to get the county to build a school for their children.  As the building burned, one of the distraught parents said, “Look at what we fought for.”

The Parent-Teacher Association and the students had produced the three-act comedy “Lighthouse Nan”[iv] earlier in the evening.

J. C. Evans, the janitor for the school, had worked the lights for the scenery and had noticed that the wiring was smoking.  He said he thought nothing of it and, after the play, he locked the building and went home.

It can be difficult to imagine this today, as the school is just 5 air miles from the zero milestone in downtown Memphis, but at the time of the fire, the school was in the county.  The Memphis Fire Department was requested to respond and did.  When firefighters arrived, the building was mostly consumed.  Because of a lack of water mains and fire hydrants, water was scarce, which meant there was little the firefighters could do.  Firefighters did use some water from the Forrest Products Chemical Company, which was located one-half mile from the school.

Two hours after the fire was reported the building was still burning, and firefighters directed what little water they had at the fire.[v]  The three-story wood-frame building was a total loss.

 

Three days later, on August 1, 1927, the Shelby County Board of Education voted to rebuild the school.  The Hollywood School was one of the largest in the county, with an enrollment of 1,000 students.  Insurance on the building amounted to $110,000, which would be applied towards the cost of the new school building.[vi]

Temporary arrangements were made for educating the displaced students.  Students living east of Cypress Creek would attend classes at the Methodist and Baptist Churches in the community, and at a temporary school opened at 1800 Chelsea Avenue west of North McLean, until the new school was completed.  Students living west of Cypress Creek would attend classes at Guthrie, Leroy-Pope, Snowden, Gordon, or Humes schools.[vii]

On March 19, 1928, County Commission Chairman E. W. Hale, and County Attorney Lois D. Bejach, asked Mayor Watkins Overton for financial assistance in rebuilding the school.  Both said that it was likely that Memphis would annex the area within a year or two, as Memphis was already proposing to do so because E. H. “Boss” Crump wanted the city to expand.[viii]  City ordinances required that the school be fireproof, but the county had no such requirement.  Having Memphis provide financial assistance before construction would save the increased cost of retrofitting the school to be fireproof when the area was annexed.  The insurance money was insufficient to build a school that was both large enough for the needs of the community and also fireproof.  Mayor Overton said he would investigate the matter further, but Memphis refused to provide any assistance in the rebuilding of the school.[ix]

As of March 27, 1928, no progress had been made on rebuilding the school.  The Hollywood Civic Club and the Hollywood Manufacturer’s Association called for the immediate construction of a new school.  The Hollywood Manufacturer’s Association represented 30 large industries in the Hollywood section of the county, and their employees had children who needed a school.[x]

On April 4, 1928, it was announced that the school board had selected architect Joe Wallace to design a new school.  The building would be three-story, fireproof, and much smaller than the original school because of limited funds from the insurance claim (which ended up being $95,000 on a $125,000 loss), and the lack of financial support from the City of Memphis.  The board said it would enlarge and improve the new school whenever funds became available.  The plan was to have the school open for the fall term.[xi]

On May 27, 1928, H. A. McGuire and Company was awarded the construction contract for the new Hollywood School.  The project was to be completed by the fall term, less than four months away.[xii]  Construction work started immediately.

As of August 12, 1928, construction on the new school was ahead of schedule and set to be completed on September 1, 1928.  The cost of the building was $200,000 ($3,687,731 in 2024 dollars).  The school was three-stories with a basement.  The first floor held the assembly hall and six classrooms.  The second floor held the principal’s office, teacher’s restroom, and six classrooms.  The library and six classrooms were on the third floor.  Each floor had a lavatory.  The building measured 168-feet by 80-feet and was constructed of brick and reinforced concrete.  The school opened on September 16, 1928.[xiii]

 

The newly completed school, 1928.[xiv]

Annexation of the area occurred on November 1, 1929.  Though Memphis did not contribute to the building of the new school, even though the city knew it was going to annex the area, it was built to be fireproof, a Memphis fire code requirement.  During the week of November 4, 1929, Memphis Fire Captain C. P. Remmey, attached to the Chamber of Commerce Safety Division, and Deputy State Fire Marshal E. B. Hanson, inspected the Hollywood School, along with the other schools in the annexation area.[xv]

The building was added onto over the years and eventually became the Hollywood Elementary School, located at 1346 Bryan Street.  Hollywood Elementary School closed in 2008, and the Promise Academy now operates a school in this 96-year-old building.  It is a testament to the workmanship of the era that a building that was built in less than four months is still in use almost 100 years later.

Hollywood School, 1934[xvi]

 

Promise Academy, 1346 Bryan Street (photo from Bing Maps, 2024)

 

 

[i] Commercial Appeal, May 26, 1922, page 12

[ii] Commercial Appeal, April 4, 1924, page 12

[iii] Commercial Appeal, April 5, 1924, page 7

[iv] https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.lighthousenan00parm/?st=gallery

[v] Commercial Appeal, July 30, 1927, page 1

[vi]  Commercial Appeal, August 2, 1927, page 8

[vii]  Commercial Appeal, August 28, 1927, page 26

[viii] Commercial Appeal, Jan. 23, 1929

[ix]  Commercial Appeal, March 20, 1928, page 10

[x]  Commercial Appeal, March 27, 1928, page 12

[xi] Commercial Appeal, April 4, 1928, page 17, and May 13, 1928, page 73

[xii]  Commercial Appeal, May 27, 1928, pages 58 and 60

[xiii  Commercial Appeal, August 12, 1928, page 69

[xiv] Commercial Appeal, September 30, 1928, page 84

[xv]  Commercial Appeal, November 10, 1929, page 16

[xvi] https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/speccoll-mss-20thcenturyphoto3/272/

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