- Glenwood Elementary
Glennwood is the oldest school in the City of Decatur and one of the oldestin the
Atlanta, Georgia area.History
Glennwood Elementary opened in 1913 on property the City acquired fromthe heirs of Thomas Glenn. The site was on the outskirts of town, borderingan area known as “Glenn’s Woods” (now Glennwood Estates).
In the school’s first years older boys were given a choice of attending study hall or helping to clear brush as men felled trees on what was to become the playfield.
From 1913 to 1915 the building served as Decatur’s high school.In 1915 Glennwood, with an enrollment of 250 students, became Decatur’s only elementary school. The Glennwood PTA was founded that same year.
During Glennwood’s first decades, students and teachers either walked orrode the trolley which turned around at the end of its line across thestreet from the school. As times changed and parents began driving theirchildren to school in the 1950s, a semicircular driveway was installed toease traffic along Ponce De Leon Avenue.
The school’s library was established in the mid-1940s. In 1949 a new wing,housing more classrooms and an auditorium, was added on the west end of the building. The school got its first intercom system in 1951 – a novelty thatthrilled students and teachers alike. In 1961, after raising money throughsuppers at the school, the PTA funded the addition of a playground blacktop.
In 2002 work began on Glennwood’s long awaited renovation. Students andfaculty moved to a temporary home in the Fifth Avenue school near theOakhurst neighborhood. In August 2003 they returned to a renovated and expanded Glennwood facility.
In a press release issued January 7, 2004, Glennwood Elementary, "A Great Place to Learn", was named a 2004 School of Excellence in Student Achievement. The school received this recognition as one of 13 schools demonstrating the greatest continuous gains in reading/language arts and math over the previous three year period.
Principals
#1913-1927 Mrs. T. N. Fulton
#1927-1944 Mrs. H. B. Carreker
#1944-1945 Mrs. P. G. Sessions
#1945-1956 Mrs. J. A. Campbell
#1956-1964 Miss Vee Simmons
#1964-1986 Miss Joyce Paris
#1986-1994 Mrs. Marie “Betty” Matthews
#1994-1996 Mrs. Faye Wilson
#1996-1998 Dr. Ellis W. Mills
#1998-2000 Dr. Debra Allen
#2000- 2004 Mrs. Jan Goodloe
#2004-present Dr. Gloria Lee
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
