The story
The school was originally founded in 1909 by The Rev. George P. Mayo, an Episcopal clergyman, as the Blue Ridge Industrial School, a school for the rural mountain students in the region. The school opened in January 1910 as a coeducational vocational school with about 35 students; two students graduated at the first commencement in 1918. Enrollment rose to 112 in 1922 and 165 in 1928. The first building was Neve Hall; the school lost buildings to fires in 1911, 1918, and 1962, when the first infirmary was destroyed and was hit by a tornado on September 30, 1959. Mayo served as Superintendent until 1944. It closed in 1960.
Blue Ridge became a college preparatory school for boys in 1962, with a short-term reduction of the student body to 66.
From Wikipedia’s article on Blue Ridge School, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4
