South Charleston High School - History

History

South Charleston High School has called three buildings home since it was created over 80 years ago. The original Louden District High School was built in downtown South Charleston in 1925. A newer building was built a few blocks from the old building, still in downtown South Charleston, in 1931. South Charleston High was moved to the larger building; South Charleston Junior High School moved into the 1925 building, which sits adjacent to Oakes Field and is referred to as the "Old Rec Center." In 1971 a new, much larger school and campus complex was built on the site of an old country club in the Spring Hill area of town. South Charleston Junior High School was moved from the original 1925 building to the old South Charleston High School. The current South Charleston Middle School building today still has Louden District High School engraved into the stone.

The South Charleston High School "Black Eagle Band" has been around almost as long as the school. The original band was organized in 1932 with only three members participating. The first band was led by Charles Gorby, whose music store founded in 1946 in downtown South Charleston is somewhat of a local landmark. The band has seen enrollment of up to 110 members at one time.

In 1990, South Charleston's rival school Dunbar High School was closed and those students were transferred across the Kanawha River to South Charleston High School.

South Charleston High school, along with George Washington High School, made national headlines in 1992, when, during an illegal off-campus Senior Skip Day party with other students from South Charleston High School, two students were shot and killed over an argument about payment for a keg of beer.

In 1999, SCHS became the first school in West Virginia to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program. SCHS is still the only high school in West Virginia to offer the IB program over ten years after it was introduced into the state.