GMS History The History of Greenbrier Military School | Page 14

MAKING A MILITARY SCHOOL 1922-1967
Once the Moore brothers had bought the school in 1920, they started
on a building program, adding a brick south wing in 1921. According to the
1920-21 catalog, this fireproof building, which contained the dining room
and dorm rooms for one hundred boys, cost $125,000. Unfortunately, as
fire had haunted every incarnation of the boys’ school, the new military
school was no exception. On the night of Feb. 21, 1925, a fire started in the
furnace room. Soon the whole center section of the brick-veneer school was
in flames. Across Lee Street, six-year-old Brownie Moore watched from
her upstairs bedroom window. Her daddy, D.T. Moore, was up and out and
helping to evacuate even as the Lewisburg and Ronceverte fire companies
were on the way. Her mother did what she could to comfort the boys who
ran out of the building. Everyone escaped unharmed, although some boys
lost all their clothing. The Greenbrier Independent (2/27/1925) says that
more than two hundred students were sent home, to return on March 5. The
entire north wing of the school burned, but the kitchen and dining room in
the newer south end remained intact. The unburned rooms would house one
hundred students, the newspaper said, and others would be housed in
nearby buildings. The gym would be used for classes. When the present
school session ended, said the Independent writer, the Moores would
rebuild with fireproof construction. And they did. Within a year, the new
building was completed. The familiar crenellated tower in the center, with
the Quadrangle on the north and the dining hall on the south, became the
GMS of dreams and memory.

GMS New Building in 1925

Military Structure
GMS had its own military title system. The president of the school
called himself Colonel H.B. His brother J.M. came in as major, and D.T.
was named captain. A teacher was automatically awarded the rank of
captain. Those who had been around for a while—or beloved