Campton High School

The Campton High School is a former high school in Campton, Kentucky. It was the first publicly funded high school in Wolfe County and constructed during the Great Depression with funding from the Federal Works Project Administration (WPA). It opened in 1942.







Construction began on Campton High School in 1937, employing 143 men via the Federal Works Project Administration during the worst economic turmoil in the history of the nation. 1 The WPA’s goal was to provide as many jobs as possible in an attempt to restart the economy, so employment was rotated bi-weekly at the site so that all of the men had the opportunity to work. Sandstone was mined locally, cut into slabs at local quarries, and hauled onto the construction site via mule-driven sleds where the stone would then be cut into 14-inch blocks.

Campton High School became Wolfe County High School when the adjoining school systems were consolidated in the 1950s. A new Wolfe County High School opened elsewhere in 1968, and the existing facility was reused as the Wolfe County Elementary and Middle School for grades one through eight. A new middle school opened in 1991, followed by a new elementary school in 2005, at which point the building was vacated and abandoned. 1 2

AU Associates later acquired the property for redevelopment into 19 mixed-income apartments and the Wolfe County Community Center. 2


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Sources

  1. Campton School Apartments at AU Associates

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  1. Tour Southeast Kentucky signage.
  2. “Campton School Apartments.” AU Associates. N.p., 18 Mar. 2014. Web. 30 July 2014. Article.

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