Fetty Elementary

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A new building was built for Fetty Elementary in 1962. Twenty
years later, the school was closed and its building later
became the home of the Tri-State Fire Academy.

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HUNTINGTON — In December 1962, a new Fetty Elementary School was opened, replacing
a two-story frame structure built in 1928 and used until the new school was built.
The new school was located on West Virginia Route 2, just east of the city
 limits and only a short distance from the site of the original school.

Designed by Huntington architect William R. Frampton and built at a
 cost of just under $110,000, the new building contained six
 classrooms, a multi-purpose room, restrooms, a principal’s
 office and teachers’ lounge. The Neighborgall Construction
Co. was the general contractor for the project.

Citing a dwindling enrollment, the Cabell County Board of Education closed
Fetty in 1982. When some of the school’s parents objected to the closure,
Superintendent Garth Errington defended the board’s decision, saying
the school system no longer could afford to operate small schools
 in which some classrooms had only 12 or 13 students.
 Fetty was one of those schools, he said.

For nearly the next 20 years, the school system used the former elementary
 for storage. Then, in 2000, it was given a new lease on life when it
became the new home of the Tri-State Fire Academy. Born in
1959, the Academy had to abandon its 20th Street home
 when the property was sold to a developer who
 built an apartment complex on it.

Firefighters and other volunteers labored to put the former school
 building to its new use, rewiring it for high-tech classrooms,
installing new heating and air conditioning and setting
up a commercial grade kitchen. Like the labor and
 nearly all the furnishings, the kitchen
 equipment was donated.

Now in its 61st year, the nonprofit Tri-State Fire Academy
 continues to provide classroom and hands-on training for
the region’s firefighters and other emergency personnel.

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Note:  This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on May 5, 2020.

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