Musselman High School - History

History

In the 1930s, the South Berkeley community began to realize that a new high school was necessary. Bunker Hill High School, the only high school in the south end of the county, had become overcrowded and substandard. The Berkeley County Board of Education could not afford such an endeavor at the time, so the thought was set aside. Years later, Mr. and Mrs. C.H. Musselman, owners and operators of the Musselman apple processing plant, saw the need and decided to share their wealth by providing the area with a new, modern structure. Mr. Musselman died before the building was completed. The original building was actually built largely by employees of the C.H. Musselman Company. In order for the Musselman Foundation to make the gift to the community without special legislation, an interesting legal procedure was followed. First, the school board purchased the agreed upon site for the building. The site was then leased to the C.H. Musselman Foundation and the building was constructed. The lease was subsequently terminated and the key was handed over to the Berkeley County Board of Education once the structure was finished. The Board of Education named the school Musselman High School. Classes commenced before all details were completed due to the strong need for the facility. In the first months of operation, the school had no chalkboards, lockers, pencil sharpeners, nor mascot. The building also lacked a gymnasium and an auditorium, however, the community was still very grateful. Many activities that still exist today started the first year the school opened including marching band, football and basketball teams, and a school newspaper called "The Cider Press." The marching band made its debut in the spring of 1950 at the Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester, Virginia. The first football team that same year consisted of eleven members and coach, Mr. Kenneth Waldeck. Mr. Waldeck nicknamed the team the "fighting eleven" after their first season brought only one tie and six losses. The Musselman High School football stadium is named for Mr. Waldeck. The original mascot chosen for Musselman High School was the "dragons" and the football team wore borrowed burgundy-colored uniforms from nearby Handley High School. Fundraisers by the students and community helped to raise money for the chalkboards and other necessities. The school offered a contest in 1950 for students to choose the school colors and Macks Beasley was named the winner with his selection of kelly-green and white. In 1951, then coach and principal, Mr. Kenneth Waldeck, decided to further honor the Musselman family by using an apple theme for the school's mascot. He named the "Applemen" as the mascot and the color red was added to the school colors. The Berkeley County Board of Education paid to construct a gymnasium on the south end of the building in 1955. Prior to the gyms construction, the Applemen had been holding their home games at Martinsburg High School. The auditorium did not come until 1979, thanks to the joint contributions of the Board of Education and the C.H. Musselman Foundation. By 1996, the original Musselman High School building had also become severely overcrowded and substandard and the South Berkeley community held an election and passed a bond that would help to build yet another new building. The new high school was relocated on the opposite side of Rt.11 and opened in 1998. The old building was demolished and is presently the site of the new Musselman Middle School. The original gymnasium and auditorium were kept and integrated into the middle school building plans. The new state-of-the-art high school building cost 16.1 million dollars to build and encompassed a school store, two gymnasiums, a high-tech auditorium, greenhouses, a public library, and 63 classrooms. The building has since been renovated and expanded twice to handle the influx of residents to the area and ever-increasing enrollment.