Paul Hayne School

Illustration of the Paul Hayne School in an 1893 publication

The Paul Hayne School (originally Southside Grammar School) was a former Birmingham city school located on the southeast corner of 5th Avenue South and 20th Street (on the present site of the Kirklin Clinic). It was constructed in 1886 at a cost of $60,000 and later expanded.

The school was named in honor of South Carolina-born poet Paul Hamilton Hayne who had sent an original poem and a book of verse in honor of the school at its dedication.

The original school was three stories with a basement and the upper floor sheltered under a mansard roof. The exterior was clad in light-colored brick with limestone quoins at the corners and segmental arches over the windows. A central entrance tower faced 5th Avenue and was peaked with a tall pyramidal roof spire. The other roofs were of slate with clipped gables and a wrought-iron parapet rail.

An 1889 addition to the south side of the building faced 20th Street. It housed 12 classrooms on three stories, with an attic floor enclosed in a multi-gabled roof. The newer building, designed by the firm of Wheelock, Joy and Wheelock and built at a cost of $50,000, was clad in a darker brick and had a more understated ornamental scheme with triple windows and projecting courses.

The building was used at various times as an elementary school, a junior high school, a high school, an "opportunity school" and a vocational school.

Principals

• 1880s: J. B. Cunningham
• 1899 - 1908: Charles B. Glenn
• 1920s: Clarence J. Going
• - 1926: N. B. Hendrix
• 1926-1930: T. C. Young
• 1930- : R. F. Jarvis