The Night School was open in the evenings when the children were not working and it also provided many additional services, including showers, daycare, and social events to the kids and their families.

East Athens Night School (1901)

The East Athens Night School was opened by Louie Lane in 1897 for the children working in the mills. The children customarily went to work for 12 hours from ~6am to ~6pm, and then went to school in the evenings.

Night School Locations (1901)

The red star indicates the location of the School of Social Work (then, the Athens Manufacturing Company). The Night School was initially (1897) housed just around the corner (green star) to serve children working in our building and in the nearby Check Factory (now UGA’s Chicopee Building) and Climax Hosiery Mill (located at Oconee and Wilkerson). As it grew it needed more space and moved across the river. It operated a “neighborhood house” that provided services like a settlement house and in 1915 employed a “social worker.”

Night school is interestingly written about (1911)

A description of the graduation activities at the Night School.

Swat the Fly (1915)

If you hope to save your baby's life...

Swat the Fly Campaign

Children collect 17,000 flies. (1912)

  • A night school to educate the millworker kids (and their parents) is first mentioned in the 1850s though it seems to have been short lived. (Though the mill workforce was integrated, this night school was segregated by race.)
  • The most significant effort to help mill kids was launched in 1897. “The Night School,” was founded by Miss Louie Lane, the woman known as “the Jane Addams of Athens.”
  • With support from Athens’ Women’s Club, Miss Louie opened her doors on Oconee St, just up the hill from what is now Nuci’s Space. After a few years of success enrolling hundreds of students, she expanded and moved across the river, offering classes in the Oconee Street School (after it opened in 1907) and in the Neighborhood House, a settlement house she founded that was located where the Dairy Queen is now on Oak St.
  • The Night School was open in the evenings when the children were not working and it also provided many additional services, including showers, daycare, and social events to the kids and their families.