Messick High School was a public high school in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, established in 1908 and operated from 1909 to 1981.Vance Lauderdale. The Messick school mascot is the Golden Wildcat
Elizabeth Messick and Messick High School
''

Memphis Flyer The ''Memphis Flyer'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper serving the greater Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along ...

'', October 20, 2009 The main building was demolished in 1982, but

Memphis City Schools Memphis City Schools (MCS) was the school district operating public schools in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, United States. It was headquartered in the Frances E. Coe Administration Building. On March 8, 2011, residents voted to disband the ci ...

uses some other former Messick facilities to house the Messick Adult Education Center.History of Messick
Messick Class of '69 Reunion Committee website, accessed January 6, 2011 Messick High School was built by Shelby County to consolidate three elementary schools.Messick History
, Messick High Schools Classes of 1951 and 1952 website. History "compiled from 1948 annual"; retrieved January 6, 2011. It was a full 12 grade school until 1912 when the high school grades 9-12 were moved to the new and nearby West Tennessee Normal School (Now U of M) to train teachers. After that Messick School included only elementary grades, but a high school building was added in the 1920s and all 12 school grades were enrolled as of 1924.Susan M. Mascolino

Conducted by Memphis Heritage, Inc. for the Memphis Landmarks Commission, July 2003 At the time of its construction, the school was in a rural area of Shelby County called Buntyn, Tennessee, where

truck farm A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to ...

ing was a major economic activity. The school was named for Elizabeth Messick (1876-1951), a

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

graduate who was

superintendent Superintendent may refer to: *Superintendent (police), Superintendent of Police (SP), or Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), a police rank *Prison warden or Superintendent, a prison administrator *Superintendent (ecclesiastical), a church exec ...

of Shelby County Schools from 1904 to 1908 and who had been criticized for spending $30,000 to build the new high school. Messick later married ''

Memphis Commercial Appeal ''The Commercial Appeal'' (also known as the ''Memphis Commercial Appeal'') is a daily newspaper of Memphis, Tennessee, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is owned by the Gannett Company; its former owner, the E. W. Scripps Company, al ...

'' journalist Elmer E. Houck and used the name Elizabeth Messick Houck. In its rural location, some early students lived too far from the school to walk there, so they were transported to school in

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

- or mule-drawn

wagon A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...

s. Initially, lunches were provided by students' mothers who brought hot meals to the school at mid-day. With time, Messick became the first school in

West Tennessee West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that roughly comprises the western quarter of the state. The region includes 21 counties between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, delineated by state law. Its ...

to have a school cafeteria. Residential subdivisions grew up in the surrounding area in the 1920s. In the 1930s, Messick became part of the Memphis City Schools system. Much additional residential development occurred in the area in the late 1940s, after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

ended. By the 1970s, however, the neighborhood was losing population and Messick's enrollment declined. In the 1970s, Messick high school also had kindergarten classes. The city school board voted to close the school. The graduating class of 1981 was Messick's last, and the school's main building was demolished in 1982.

Notable alumni

Packy Axton Charles "Packy" Axton (February 17, 1941 – January 20, 1974) was an American rhythm and blues tenor saxophone player and bandleader, who was a member of the Mar-Keys and later the Packers. Early life Charles Everett "Packy" Axton was born in ...

, American musician * Dick Davis, American football player * Ted Davis, American football player * Donald "Duck" Dunn, bass guitarist and song writer * William Fones, Tennessee Supreme Court Justice * Steve Owens, chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party *

Michael Pearl ''To Train Up a Child'' is a 1994 parenting advice book written and self-published by independent Baptists Michael and Debi Pearl, which has generated controversy for encouraging child abuse. The book has been endorsed by the Institute of Basi ...

, minister *

Ruth Welting Ruth Welting (November 5, 1948 – December 16, 1999) was an American operatic soprano who had an active international career from the early 1970s through the mid-1990s. A specialist in the coloratura soprano repertoire, she was particularly asso ...

, operatic soprano *

Jimi Jamison Jimmy Wayne Jamison (August 23, 1951 – September 1, 2014) was an American singer. Best known as Jimi Jamison, he earned recognition as the frontman for the rock bands Target (American band), Target, Cobra (American band), Cobra, and Survivor ( ...

, Singer of Survivor, Cobra, Target * Gary Burbank (real name Billy Purser), Louisville and Cincinnati Radio Personality, member of the

National Radio Hall of Fame The Radio Hall of Fame, formerly the National Radio Hall of Fame, is an American organization created by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. Three years later, Bruce DuMont, founder, president, and CEO of the Museum of Broadcast Communicati ...

References

{{coord, 35.11184, -89.95405, type:edu_globe:earth_region:US-TN, display=title Schools in Memphis, Tennessee Educational institutions established in 1908 Educational institutions disestablished in 1981 Defunct schools in Tennessee 1908 establishments in Tennessee 1981 disestablishments in Tennessee Demolished buildings and structures in Tennessee Buildings and structures demolished in 1982