Hayesville High School

After local school teacher John Hicks was elected as the first representative from Clay County to the North Carolina General Assembly, he purchased land near Hayesville on Aug. 12, 1870, to establish a school, Hicksville Academy. Hicksville Academy boarded students and charged tuition in a framed, two-story building.

In 1887 Hicksville Academy was sold to the Methodist-Episcopal church and its name was changed to Hayesville Academy. In 1891 the school's management was turned over to Trinity College in Durham which later became Duke University. Courses were offered from the first grade through college and Hayesville Academy was again renamed, this time to Hayesville Male and Female College. Tuition cost $1–2 per month and student housing cost 25 cents per month. At that time 225 students were enrolled from six different states.^[8] In 1898 the school changed ownership again.^[9]

The school continued to board students through the 1909-10 school year and sometime prior to 1909 the name of the school was changed to Hayesville High School. Hayesville High School received accreditation in 1924.^[5] That same year its two-story wooden frame building was demolished and replaced with a new $36,000 brick schoolhouse.^[10] The brick building was the first school in the county to feature indoor plumbing and running water, which was supplied by an on-campus well.^[8] On August 6, 1928, the school stopped charging tuition and became free for all county students.^[11] By 1929, Hayesville High had 11 teachers and approximately 500 students.^[10] That same year the school fielded a football team; it was undefeated in its opening season.^[8]

After Ogden and Elf schools shifted focus to elementary students, Hayesville was the only high school in the county from 1937 on.^[5] In the 1940s and 50s, traveling music groups including Lester Flat and Earl Scruggs, Carl Story, Minnie Pearl, and Hank Williams performed at Hayesville High.^[9] A new school was constructed in 1950 and the old brick schoolhouse was demolished the following year.^[12] The new school began using water from the town of Hayesville. A gymnasium was built in 1957. In the 1950s the school added 14 acres of land (including an athletic field), a custodian's home, and a brick auditorium. In 1972, Hayesville High's shop class students built a new jail for Clay County in Hayesville. The prison was in use until it was replaced in 2008.^[8] In the 1980s, Hayesville High's trade and industrial classes built homes that were auctioned off by the board of education.^[13] From 1988-1989, the school's vocational carpentry class built the octagonal gazebo stage on the town square next to the Clay County Courthouse.^[14]

Hayesville High School served students in grades 7-12 until the creation of Hayesville Middle School in 1989. At that point HHS began serving grades 9-12. In 1991, the high school moved into its current two-story brick facility, which was designed by 1953 Hayesville High School graduate James Padgett of Padgett and Freeman Architects. Padgett's firm designed many of the buildings and additions on campus.^[15] In 2008, the campus track was named the Buck Carney Track in honor of the school's most successful track and cross country coach, Elda Homer Carney.^[16] Hayesville High School's auditorium was demolished in summer 2024 to make room for a new middle school and performing arts center that is expected to open in January 2027.^[17] In 2025, the high school's gym was renamed the Darryl K. McClure Gymnasium in honor of its longtime girls basketball coach.^[18]