Coffee High School

Coffee High School was a public high school established in 1914 in Florence, Alabama. After the 2003–2004 school year, the school merged with Bradshaw High School to form Florence High School. History Coffee High School was founded in 1914 as the first public high school in Florence. Classes were first held in a rented antebellum home on North Pine Street, in the Sannoner Historic District. The school moved to another home before a permanent building on Jackson Highway (now Hermitage Drive) was completed in 1917. At the time, the school had 400 students; the first senior class graduated in 1918 with 11 students. By the late 1940s, Florence's growth fueled by the construction of Wilson Dam and the Tennessee Valley Authority's potassium nitrate plants had overcrowded Coffee. Classes were held in split sessions in the morning and afternoon. A new campus was completed in 1951. After continued growth, a second high school, Bradshaw High, was opened in 1966, for youth in the eastern parts of the city. But in the 1980s, due to economic decline in the area, the population of families with young people likewise fell, ending the need for two schools. As such, the Florence City Schools merged Coffee and Bradshaw in 2004 into Florence High School, which took up residence on the old Bradshaw campus. Original building