Bountiful Junior High School is marking an anniversary.
Seventy-five years ago the school became the first south county junior high school when Davis County consolidated its school district. It was also one of the first junior high schools in Utah, according to Principal Lyle B. Webb.Students in upper grades, who had attended the new school in 1914-15, were transferred to Davis High in Kaysville. Ever since, the school has been a junior high school, originally called South Davis Junior High School before another junior high by that name was built in 1959.
An entry in the Davis High yearbook written by student Ruth Smedley in 1916 showed that the consolidated district and new junior high school did not come without controversy.
"For some years Davis County has been puzzling and plotting how it could adequately accommodate its school population. It has been a whirling, muddy body of water, constantly stirred by its different towns and citizens, never allowing the sediment to sink in quiet to the bottom and permit the water to become clear," she wrote.
A lot has changed since the school first opened, Webb said. Numerous additions have been made on the east, west and north. In the fall of 1915, students at the school numbered 176. Today the school has 1,100 students, and there are 33 faculty members.
"It is still in really good condition. We only have problems once in a while with the wiring," Webb said of the original structure, which is one of the oldest schools in Davis County still in use.
In the early days, students from Centerville, West Bountiful, Bountiful and North Salt Lake attended the school. Eventually Farmington students also attended. Now all of the students come from nearby Bountiful areas.
In early days, students from Centerville rode the Bamberger Railroad, while students from south Bountiful and North Salt Lake rode the Orchard Drive street car. Students from West Bountiful walked, according to a history about the school.
Other things have changed. When the school opened, the girl's lavatory was located inside the school, while the boys had an outdoor latrine. There was no school lunch, just lunches from home. The main athletic program consisted of baseball, hop scotch and marbles.
One former student reported the subjects taught at the school were English, arithmetic, history, art, music, science and geography. Teachers rotated through four first-level rooms.
Favorite events in the early history of the school were a May Day hike to the canyons above Bountiful and a Flag Day rush, according to one account.
Over the years the school has withstood some small tragedies including a waste-can fire, a boiler-room fire and buffeting from canyon winds that have ripped parts of the roof off.
Webb said the school is also unusual because it has had only six principals in 75 years. Principal J.A. Taylor was a principal for 37 years at the school from 1916-1953. A Centerville elementary school was named after him.
Some third and fourth generations of families are now attending the school, and some current faculty members attended the school as children, Webb said.