The “Castle,” a former Norcross High School.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
OCT. 14, 2022 | It doesn’t happen often, but every now and then you find something good unexpected happens to you. Suddenly it’s there, and you were not even thinking about it. You are just lucky.
This windfall came to me recently from Norman Baggs, my former colleague at the Gwinnett Daily News. For years, he has been the general manager of The Times in Gainesville. He ran across a box of old Gwinnett photographs, saw what they were, and mailed them to me.
In turn, I’ve taken them to the Gwinnett Historical Society, a depository of all things Gwinnett, so that they can be made available to others, particularly family members, and those doing research on Gwinnett.
So today, let me celebrate some of these photos with our readers.
Baggs
One was a photo of what was once Norcross High School. Because of its solid brick construction, and the way it looked, it was called “The Castle.” But, unfortunately, this solid building was torn down when the former Norcross High on Beaver Ruin Road was built.
There’s more to this story. In the 1950’s, the Gwinnett School Board, faced with a growing population, decided to resolve the high school question “forever” by creating four schools, North, South, Central and West Gwinnett high schools. Norcross and Duluth students formed West Gwinnett High School for one year – 1956-57.
But Dacula said their students would not attend Lawrenceville (Central Gwinnett), sued the school board and won. Then Duluth said it wanted its high school back, and got a new school built. West Gwinnett graduated only one class.
Meanwhile, the School Board found tearing down “the Castle” was much more difficult than they estimated, since the school was built so solidly. And it cost more to tear down than they thought. But tear it down they did, and today we rue the day, for it was a handsome (and sturdy) building.
This 1902 photo from Lawrenceville shows dignitaries making a phone call, from a phone installed outside a building. The interesting part of this photo for me is the man on the left is J.C. Flanigan, editor of the Gwinnett Journal, who wrote two histories of the county. It’s the first photo I can remember seeing of him. The only other person identified is Albert Smith, third from right. Can anyone identify others?
Then there’s this photo of six people reviewing a document. The back of the picture identified the ladies seated as Mrs. Ray Ramser and Mrs. A.G. Lisles. Standing are a Mr. ___ Bolton, J.J. Baggett, Joe Cheeley and Jones Webb. Three of these guys look mighty young compared to the way we knew them.
And finally, here’re two photos of the people who were around at the time Gwinnett was founded, back in 1818. It’s no other than William Maltbie and the photo says on the right, his wife, Philadelphia Winn Maltbie, daughter of Elisha and Judith Winn. Maltbie was the first postmaster in Lawrenceville, the second clerk of the interior court, and suggested the name of Lawrenceville for the county seat.
So there’s some history today with these old photographs. We’ll share more with you at another time. Thanks, Norman Baggs of Sugar Hill, for brightening our week with these old photos.
Neighboring Hall County’s administrator, Jock Connell, will retire at the end of March, 2023, we’ve learned. For 23 years, he worked in Gwinnett, retiring as the county administrator in 2009, and was special projects manager in Hall for the years in between. We bet he’ll stay active in his second retirement!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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