Atlantic High School (Original Building)
According to the "History of Atlantic" published by the Chamber of Commerce in 1968 for the Atlantic Centennial, the old Atlantic High School building, pictured above, was apparently completed about 1877. Minutes from October 11, 1877 record a resolution stating: "Whereas we have just completed a comfortable building for school purposes and known as the high school building . . . "This was the old high school at 7th and Walnut. Tuition at this time was listed as $6 per term and books were furnished for children whose parents could not provide them." In 1912 bonds were voted for a new East Side school and for a $40,000 addition to the high school. "The new addition to the high school was to enlarge the building located at 7th and Walnut, then called the Central school. The school board owned the entire half block and the new addition was built on the north of the old building. These two buildings were used until the present high school was occupied in 1937. They were then sold to R. W. Cockshoot who converted them to apartments. These were occupied until March of 1955 when they were destroyed in what was probably the greatest fire in Atlantic's history."
