Remembering the fire of '56

Thursday, December 7, 2006

* Nevada High School burned 50 years ago, Nov. 29, 1956.

By Colette Lefebvre-Davis

Special to the Daily Mail

Today's Nevada High School students pass in and out of the school's mighty doors receiving their education and moving on with little thought to the walls and furnishings around them.

However, students 50 years ago suddenly found themselves taking classes in local churches, gymnasiums and any other area that would accommodate them. Students of that era learned not to take their facility for granted. The old school was located on Washington and Austin in Nevada.

Now, the campus site is home to a post office, bank and an office building.

The fire broke out on Nov. 29, 1956 well into the evening. It was reported by neighbors at just before 11 p.m.

However, the neighbors who first spotted the fire the Allen's did not have a phone and proceeded to their neighbor's home. The neighbor then called the police. Soon a rush of fire departments were on the way from Butler, State Hospital No. 3, Fort Scott and Nevada. Even the Missouri National Guard from Camp Clark came to the scene. Their original objective, like most fires was to extinguish the fire and save the building. But, it wasn't to be -- as the inferno intensified, neighbors were evacuated from their homes and 45 guests from a local hotel were evacuated as the fire licked the rooftop of the Calhoun-Putnam lumber company.

Then fire chief Pierceall stated. "Once the flames shot up the ducts in the building there was no hope of extinguishing the fire."

The objective had changed to one of containment -- trying to keep the flames away from nearby business and homes. Meanwhile, the debris fell into the streets, blocking off U.S. Highway 54. A local volunteer provided the firemen with coffee and doughnuts while they worked away the night and half of the next morning. Two spectators were reportedly injured from tripping over the fire hose.

As the fire receded and residents gathered their heads; a Nevada Herald photographer snapped an early morning shot of the building in ruins. It was titled "Beauty in destructive fire."

The fire was determined to have been started in the paint storage closet located in the Manual Arts Department.

The total damage sustained to the school was $1.7 million.

Later that week, the Nevada Herald reported the feelings of the local citizenry on the disaster.

"I have always wanted to see it burn down but now that it has I am terribly sorry," stated a man identified only as Gary.

The basketball coach at the time, Wayne Reed, stated. "It's one of those things that can't be helped. I sure hope there is somewhere we can continue our athletic program."

Many students came to school the next morning, not realizing that it had burned down.

At the same time Superintendent C.H. Jones and Principal Garland Keithly met with the members of the school board to plan the immediate future for these students. For two years the makeshift arrangements were carried out while the new building was being built.

School would never be the same for the graduating class of 1957.

The freshman class was held at Longstreth's grocery store. Local churches housed various other classes and the state hospital offered the use of its gymnasium.

Nine hundred students were without a school for nearly two years.

Soon after the fire, the building was razed so that U.S. 54 could be reopened. Locals still recall the morning that it happened. Most of the students of the Nevada high school class of 1957 remember the unusual year they graduated.

One of them, Hayden Jackson, came back for an all-class reunion held in October 2005.

"After we went through that fire, the class of '57 just kind of scattered. They're everywhere now," Jackson said.

The first class to graduate out of the new Nevada High School was the class of 1958.

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