S. R. Butler High School

S. R. Butler High School was a four-year public high school that served students in grades 9-12 from Huntsville, Alabama. The school was named after Samuel Riley Butler, a principal, school superintendent, and school founder. It opened in 1951 and closed in 2015. History Samuel Riley Butler (November 2, 1868 - ?) was a principal, superintendent of public schools, and school owner in Alabama. He was born in Poplar Ridge in Madison County and grew up in Tennessee. He was a Democrat. He married Ida Lee Smith. Canada Butler was one of his grandfathers. He started Butler Training School in 1908 and operated it until 1914. From 1914 until 1929 this building served as the Wills-Taylor School for boys and girls. The city then bought it and made it the Huntsville Junior High School. Now it is a parking lot for the Annie Merts Center for school administration. The first Butler High School was built in 1954 and was originally intended to also serve as a fallout shelter for the surrounding area in the case of a nuclear attack. Its proximity to Redstone Arsenal Army Base made the area a likely target during the Cold War. The final S.R. Butler High School was built in the late 1960s with the first graduating class in 1968. The previous Butler was renamed Stone Junior High School (years later renamed Stone Middle School) and is located at the intersection of Clinton Avenue and Governors Drive, and was remodeled after a suspicious fire destroyed much of the old school. The final Butler H.S. was located on Holmes Ave.