Van Buren County High School was built in the late 1930’s with James Maurice Taft, Superintendent of Schools that year, responsible for work beginning on the school. The second envisioned by Taft would have cost the county an estimated $80,000. Aware that this was a huge cost for the small county in the 1930’s, he set out to find a way. After spending $309 for 103 acres of cut-over forest land, the land was utilized by students and friends to cut trees for lumber; a sandstone quarry was brought into operation on this same land.
After building a sawmill from junk-pile parts, the timber was sawed by local men. The new high school was built with the stone and lumber and the help of students. The first students to receive a high school education at public expense was at Burritt College, a private institution operated under the auspices of the Churches of Christ, which was on a contract basis beginning the Fall of 1914 and continued until the opening of the 1938-39school term.
At the September 10, 1936 meeting of the Van Buren County Board of Education --James M. Taft, Superintendent, Board members; Sam Gamble, C.L. Russell, Marie Hillis, P.M. Shockley, Albert Jones, Sr., John Deweese and Charlie Hollingsworth, a committee was appointed to purchase land and equipment necessary to build a public high school in connection with a W.P.A. and N.Y.A. project. This project was started under the direction of Supt. Taft, but was not completed until the fall of 1940. Temporary buildings secured for use during the 1938-39 school year was the York Academy and the First Baptist Church of Spencer. The construction of the building was rushed to completion and used to house part of the elementary grades. Graduation exercises for the class of 1938-39 were conducted in this building.
The cost to Van Buren County for the original structure was $20,000. Three additions have been built. The first one was completed in 1956. The second addition (left wing and remodeling of the typing room) was done in 1969. The right wing was added in 1974, and the Industrial Arts building was completed in 1985. This was the composition of the plant when the fatal fire destroyed the main building on October 3, 1988.
Through valiant efforts of the local fire department and neighboring departments, the Agriculture Building and the Industrial Arts Building still stand.
