RAINELLE – SIGNIFICANT DATES
(Forwarded by W. Kenneth Napier)

1906 – Mr. T. W. RAINE acquired 32,000 acres of land
1908 - Construction of houses began
1910 – Railroads built
1913 – Meadow River Lumber Co. (MRLC) built 11-room school house for grade school
1914 – Methodist Episcopal Church dedicated
1917 – High school classes begin
1922 – MRLC donated school to the Board of Education
1924 – Brick building erected for grade school
1925 – First high school graduating class – 14 students
1927 - First yearbook
1927 - Gymnasium and auditorium constructed
1931 - The Mountain Ranger, official school paper, first published
1933 – Won the Greenbrier Valley Championship in football; co-champs in 1946; champs again in 1951.
1939 – Band organized by Mr. Leslie Groves; discontinued in 1942
1939 – Quill and Scroll Society organized
1940 – National Honor Society chapter organized
1943 – Mr. Roy Coffman became principal, succeeding Mr. George B. Lanham
1944-45 – New high school constructed
1947 – Athletic field constructed as memorial to WWII veterans. Ground donated by MRLC
1947 – Band reorganized by Mrs. Phyllis Halsey
1952 – Hot lunch program started as project of the PTA: Mr. J. Leo Holsberry was the PTA president

Source: The Journal of the Greenbrier Historical Society, Volume VII, Number 6, 2004, using a 1954 “History of Rainelle” included in the papers of Dr. John Montgomery, Superintendent of Schools for Greenbrier County.

* See our Meadow River Lumber Company page.


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