South Charleston

Judy Bowen Romano

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780738586496
• eBook ISBN: 9781439641484
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

South Charleston was named for its location on the south bank of the Kanawha River near Charleston. Kanawha Land Company formed the city by combining three farms and securing titles to approximately 2, 000 acres in 1906. The area, consisting of hill and bottom land, was used to establish an industrial town. Free land and cheap fuel were offered to plants to locate in South Charleston. By 1907, the town site had been surveyed, and stone from the South Charleston Crusher Companys quarry at Spring Hill was used to pave the sidewalks and some streets. Banner and Dunkirk Glass companies were the towns first businesses, followed by the Ordnance Center and chemical companies.

Seven

SCHOOLS AND SPORTS

South Charleston High School opened in 1926 in a distinctive five-sided building on Third Avenue and played its first basketball and football games that year. The first yearbook was the Loudspeaker, renamed the Pentagon in 1929. The first class ring was worn until 1971. In 1933–1934, the school was named South Charleston High School, orange and black were chosen for the school colors, and the black eagle as the school’s mascot. The first Miss Black Eagle was Carolyn Hoover, and the first Miss Kanawha Majorette was Dolores (Blackwell) Thompson.

South Charleston High School State Championships:

1940 boy’s golf
1941 boy’s golf
1942 boy’s golf
1945–1946 football
1958–1959 boy’s basketball
1976–1977 baseball
1977–1978 baseball
1994–1995 AAA football
2003 AAA girl’s basketball
2008 AAA football
2008 girl’s tennis

Luana Bowen and Jerry Chandler are on their way to the prom at South Charleston High School. Chandler graduated from South Charleston High School in 1954 and went on to play basketball at Morris Harvey College, now the University of Charleston. Jerry and Luana married and moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1960 with Coach Jack Surette. Jerry has been with Seabreeze High School for over 50 years. (Courtesy Luana Bowen Chandler.)

Paula Romano waves at the crowd at the homecoming parade in South Charleston. She was chosen by her class to be the South Charleston High School Homecoming Queen attendant in 1982. (Courtesy South Charleston Museum.)

The 1948 Boys Club was sponsored by the South Charleston Lions Club director Maurice Miller. (Courtesy South Charleston Museum.)

The 2008 AAA state football champions, with a 14–0 record. (Courtesy Ken Samples.)

Pictured are the South Charleston High School majorettes in the 1950s. South Charleston High School’s Delores Thompson was the very first Miss Kanawha Majorette. The Charleston Daily Mail has sponsored the Kanawha County Majorette festival for many years, and the school is proud to say their majorette was the first to be honored. (Courtesy South Charleston Museum.)

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Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• One - IN THE BEGINNING
• Two - THE BELGIAN INFLUENCE
• Three - HISTORIC STRUCTURES
• Four - SOUTH CHARLESTON’S PEOPLE
• Five - MILITARY
• Six - BUSINESSES
• Seven - SCHOOLS AND SPORTS
• ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION