Elm Street School
Mary Bramlett Elementary School

1936 Seventh Grade:

Article published in the Gaffney Ledger, 3 Apr 1996

By Scott Powell, Staff Writer

Most residents who attend school board meetings at Mary Bramlett Elementary probably don't realize they are parking their cars on the original school site.

In 1924, workers began building Elm Street School on a site donated by the Gaffney Manufacturing Company, Desdie Ramsey said. Ramsey taught at the school for 30 years.

The school opened in February 1925 and it was the most modern grammar school building for students in Gaffney at that time, she said.

Mary Bramlett was named principal, a position she would hold at that school until her retirement in 1957.

Two years later, a wooden building with three rooms was built behind the school to accommodate increased enrollment.

In 1934, the number of students decreased and the new addition was converted into a lunchroom and nursery.

The present playground used to be a swamp in the 1930s.

"There was a line of water and we used to turn it on at recess," Ruth Patterson, a former kindergarten teacher assistant at the school, said. "The boys and girls would stand on opposite sides and get their own water."

The source of the water was a well in the basement of the school.

"We used to take turns pumping water out of the well," Ramsey recalls. "One time when I was teaching, the pump broke. They got it under control before it could do too much damage."

During 1941 and '42 the school recognized its former students who served in the armed forces by placing their names on big patriotic plaques in the front hall, Ramsey said.

Nine former students were killed during World War II and the school planted dogwoods in front of the school as a tribute, she said.

A parking lot now stands where the dogwoods once bloomed but the memories of its former students' contribution to the war effort haven't been forgotten, she said.

When Bud Bridges became a school board member in 1977, the school board unanimously renamed the school after Mary Bramlett.

"Mary Bramlett was one of the finest principals in the history of this district," Bridges said. "She ruled that school with an iron hand. She demanded and received respect.

"She was loved by every child and teacher," Bridges said. "She was the quality of person who never forgot someone after they left the school."

When Bridges graduated from Limestone College, he received a 12-page letter from Bramlett about his career at the school.

"In the letter, she wrote about the things I did that impressed her, what type of things I needed to monitor and what she wanted me to work toward," he said.

Bridges said he has held onto the letter.

"For a person like that to write such a letter and send it to one of her former students is more than money could buy," he said.