Johnson School (City No. 4) - a city school erected during 1888, on the northwest corner of Limestone and Fourth Street. The school was located in the second and third wards, in northern Lexington. The school was named after Mayor Claude W. Johnson. Mayor Johnson was responsible for a $30,000 school bond issued in 1888. The school opened in January 1889, with ten classrooms at a cost of $32,000, (the extra $2,000 used for plumbing and sidewalks). The first Principal was C. M. Alberti. The school offered grades 1 to 10. The building was closed in 1940, when a new facility was opened.[i] During World War Two, the original building housed a Signal Corp school and assembled parachutes. The building was demolished in 1951.
In 1939, a new Johnson School was built at 123 East Sixth Street. Additions were made in 1955 (eight classrooms, cost $160,290) and 1958 (four classrooms). The school was closed in 2008, replaced by William Wells Brown Elementary School.[ii]
Johnson School, now a community center, 2010 <Ambrose>
[i] Lexington Herald-Leader, March 24, 1940, page 4, columns 6-7.
[ii] A Brief Account of Fayette County’s Elementary Schools, 1969-70 and Fayette County School’s website.
