If you saw this post last week and guessed Hume-Fogg, you were right!
Nashville’s first public school, Hume-Fogg began as Hume High School in 1855 (you read that right, that’s an 18!) on the corner of 8th Ave. (then Spruce St.) and Broad. 20 years later, Fogg High School opened on the same property facing Broad in 1875. Fast forward another 40 or so years and the two joined forced to become Hume-Foggg High School, combining facilities.
That facility is still the standing building that houses the school today. A Tudor Revival building, it consists of give floors including a basement which has several tunnels leading to various locations around downtown Nashville. They are boarded off and inaccessible except during Ghost Tours held each October by the school’s student government.
In 1919, Hume-Fogg became the first school in Tennessee to be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. It used the same curriculum which followed a classic format until 1940 (including requirements in Latin, English, Advanced Mathematics and Science). The curriculum was changed, however, in 1953 to include Technical and Vocational subjects as the school tried to cater more towards those educational paths.
Another 30 years passed before the school switched gears again back to an academic school. A court order for desecrated schools helped provide the chance, and during this time Hume-Fogg became an academic magnet school for Nashville’s gifted and talented secondary students. As part of the court order, the school’s redesign was done in a way to attract a voluntary cross-section of academically able students from all racial, ethnic and economic grounds in Nashville and Davidson County.
During the 2004-2005 school year, Hume-Fogg celebrated its sesquicentennial anniversary.
A fun fact about Hume-Fogg is that it was the location for the filming of Taylor Swift’s “Teardrops on My Guitar” music video in 2007.
To read more about Hume-Fogg, visit its website here. To catch up on the rest of our ADoor Nashville series, visit here.
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Excellent background piece on Hume Fogg School!
Construction on the present building began with a Bond Issue in 1908 and the first ‘Phase’ was opened in 1912 followed by the eastern ‘wing’, that opened in 1918. You correctly indicate that prior to this bldg. it was two schools; ‘Hume’ and ‘Fogg”.
One slight lapse in the third paragraph is
” The curriculum was changed, however, in 1953 to include Technical and Vocational subjects as the school tried to cater more towards those educational paths.”
Actually, the curriculum was changed in the early 1940s, to provide skilled workers in The War Effort; I think it was 1941-1942. It was changed to the Academic Magnet form in beginning in 1983-1984.
Rather than there being “A court order for desecrated schools… ” I believe you mean, “Desegregated schools”.
I have a few more “Fun Facts” in re: to Hume Fogg; you might want use some those at:
http://home.comcast.net/~rustbelt/HFTobits.html#celebs
(more attribution can be found by following each celebs link).
Truly,
Richard HODGENS (hft1959)