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January 5, 1925 was a fateful day.  The opening of the spring semester saw Winchester kids, who had been attending the venerable Hickman Street School, begin filling the halls of a brand new building at the corner of Burns Avenue and Colby Road.

The new Winchester High School incorporated the latest construction methods, making it one of the most modern school buildings in Kentucky.  It was the first steel-framed building in the city.  Its construction was overseen by Winchester’s master builder, Newton A. Powell.  With fifteen classrooms, it was designed to accommodate grades 7 through 12.

Financed by a $150,000 bond issue, the building was not quite completed when it opened.  That spring it was still missing an assembly hall and gymnasium.  A gymnasium would have been nice.  Under their new coach, Walter “Rip” Van Winkle, the boys’ basketball team compiled a season record of 20-1.  That March the team made it to the state tournament, losing only to Louisville Manuel in the championship game.  Rip, who had been a star athlete at Kentucky Wesleyan College, also coached football and girls’ basketball.

A major change came about in 1956.  Winchester High had been a school for white kids only, and Oliver High was the school for blacks.  The decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) stated that “Separate but equal educational facilities for racial minorities is inherently unequal” and, hence, unconstitutional.  Winchester soon began the process of integrating its schools.  In the fall of 1956, African American high schoolers from Oliver began attending Winchester High.  

I only got to be in the building one time.  In December 1957 I came over with some of my seventh-grade friends to watch the Mt. Sterling Trojans play the Winchester Shawnee.  We lost the game but were impressed by the fine gymnasium.  

Another momentous change was the 1960 decision to consolidate, merging the city and county schools.  When George Rogers Clark High School opened on Boone Avenue in 1963, old Winchester High closed for good.  

The school board opted to keep using the building, however, and thus was born Belmont Junior High School.  The junior high lasted until 1990, and then the building in quick succession became the Belmont Alternative School followed by the Belmont Continuing Education Center.  The end came in 1996 when the Clark Extended Education Center opened on Vaught Road.

The school board judged the now-empty building too expensive to upgrade and repurpose.  In spite of citizen appeals to save the old school, the board decided the building should be razed to make way for the new Clark County Public Library.