GMS History The History of Greenbrier Military School | Page 26

in the college to Greenbrier College, Inc., the non-stock, nonprofit
corporation (County Deed Book # 146, p. 371). On March 16, 1939, H.B.
sold to the town of Lewisburg a one-half acre property on the Greenbrier
College campus, which had on it a building called “the old Masonic Temple
originally built as a Library and Club House for the Supreme Court of
Appeals of Virginia.” Townspeople might recall this structure as the old
pink-painted Greenbrier County Library. The 1939 deed (Deed Book #133,
p. 627) stated that it was to be used “as a Public Library, a Public Museum or
a Public Historical Building.” When the new Greenbrier County Public
Library opened in 2007, technically the emptied historic building (dating to
1834) reverted back to the Moore estate. However, with the agreement of
the Moore descendants, in April 2010 the town of Lewisburg leased the
property to New River Community and Technical College for the hosting of
special community college workshops (Register-Herald, 4/30/2010). So
the ongoing education of county citizens by the Moores has continued to the
present day.
Enrollment
The population of the school fluctuated over the years, with full
capacity being anywhere from about 340 to 410. Classes generally were
divided into a junior school of seventh and eighth grade, high school, and a
post-graduate year. In the school’s earliest days, two kind-hearted matrons
lived in the dormitory and served as nurse and mother to the small cadets
(GMS Catalog, 1925-26, p. 129). All the Moore daughters—Carolyn and
Jean, Brown, Anne and Pam, and Katharine McMurray—attended primary
school at GMS. They wore dresses, not cadet uniforms. As Brownie Rawl
said, “As soon as we got interested in the boys, we were sent across town to
Greenbrier College.”
In 1930, with only nine post-graduates, the school had 285 students.
In 1933 a college freshman class was enrolled. Primary school was dropped
and college sophomores were added. The population of the school surged
during the years of World War II. Veterans, aided by the G.I. Bill, enrolled
in the GMS junior college. According to Otis Rice in his 1986 book A
History of Greenbrier County, GMS added the freshman college year in
1933 and the sophomore year in 1940. By 1942, states Ri