Education of Marion County, Tennessee

Richard Hardy Memorial School

The cement-built PreK to 12 school of the Richard City Special School District

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Last updated: April 19, 2026

The Neoclassical front facade of Richard Hardy Memorial School, with its six-column Doric portico
Richard Hardy Memorial School, front facade. Photo: Brian Stansberry, 2015 (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0).

Richard Hardy Memorial School is the only school in the Richard City Special School District, a public district that operates independently from Marion County Schools. It was built in 1925 and 1926 largely from the Dixie Portland Cement Company's own product, as a memorial to company employees who served in World War I, and remains in operation today as one of a small number of Tennessee public schools to serve students from PreK through grade 12 on a single campus.

Richard Hardy's model-school idea

Before joining Dixie Portland Cement, Richard Hardy graduated from the University of Michigan in 1892 and became Superintendent of Schools in Ypsilanti, Michigan. In Ypsilanti he developed his idea of a “model school” that would, in his words, “make possible the development of the abilities of each individual child, thus enriching the entire community and assuring happier and more efficiently run homes.” After two decades building out the Dixie Portland plant and company town, Hardy proposed the school as the most ambitious piece of the Richard City project, and as a formal memorial to the Dixie Portland employees who had served in the First World War.

Designing the building, 1924 to 1925

Hardy worked with Dr. Fletcher B. Dresslar, professor of schoolhouse architecture at the George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville and a longtime consultant to the U.S. Bureau of Education, whose 1910 American Schoolhouses bulletin had set national standards for lighting, heating, ventilation, flooring, drinking water, toilets, cloakrooms, and assembly halls in public schools. Dresslar's advocacy of beauty in school architecture, alongside his technical standards, shaped the plan.

The architect was Charles E. Bearden of Chattanooga, whose other work included the Chamberlain building, the Palace Theater, and the Tennessee Electric Power Company (TEPCO) building. Bearden chose a Neoclassical design in the post-1893 Columbian Exposition tradition, with a T-shaped plan, a three-story central section, and two-story wings. Construction took almost two years.

Construction and dedication, 1925 to 1926

Historical photograph of the Richard Hardy Memorial School front facade with its Doric portico
Figure 12. Richard Hardy Memorial School. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.

Walls were built of hollow concrete tile; floors and roof were reinforced concrete. Portico, libraries, and lobbies were finished in terrazzo. The portico's six Doric columns were cut limestone. Interior walls were California stucco. The building was designed for fireproof construction, and the only structural wood in it was the gymnasium floor and the student desks. Workers from California laid the walls, and Georgia craftsmen laid the library terrazzo. A trained landscape gardener laid out the grounds, with extensive lawns, flower beds, and shrubbery.

Total cost to Dixie Portland was $243,000.

The school was dedicated over three days, April 26 to 28, 1926. Dignitaries included Colonel John R. McQuigg, National Commander of the American Legion; Charles F. D. Belden, president of the American Library Association; and Dr. Harcourt A. Morgan, president of the University of Tennessee. The building opened with approximately 300 students and 15 teachers.

Bronze memorial tablet listing the names of 72 residents who served in World War I, mounted in the memorial lobby
Figure 11. This tablet hangs in the memorial lobby of Richard Hardy Memorial School. It lists the names of 72 residents of the town who served in World War 1. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.

The Hardy connection

Richard Hardy served as Mayor of Chattanooga from October 1923 to April 1926, elected by the city commission to fill the unexpired term of Alexander W. Chambliss after Chambliss was appointed to the Tennessee Supreme Court. In 1926 Hardy declined to seek another term and moved to New York, where the Dixie Portland Cement Company had been consolidated into the new Pennsylvania-Dixie Cement Corporation, a $45 million combination headquartered in New York City.

Hardy died of heart disease in New York City in August 1927 at age 59 and was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga. The Dixie Portland Memorial School was renamed Richard Hardy Memorial School in his honor that same year. Commonly cited sources give his death date as August 14, 1927; the 2003 Wilkerson thesis specifies only the month and year, so the day-precise date is [needs verification] against primary records.

Governance and directors

From the beginning the school was run as an independent public school district under a three-person board, with a 30-cent school tax covering part of the budget and Dixie Portland covering the balance. The company also supplied maintenance workers and any necessary materials. Dixie Portland published the Dixie Portland Memorial School News (1925 to 1927), distributed to each home in the community by a Boy Scout troop.

Front page of the Dixie Portland Memorial School News dated May 20, 1927, with a large photograph of the Lanier Literary Society group on the front steps
Figure 15. Dixie Portland Memorial School News. Courtesy of Richard Hardy Memorial School. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.

The first director was John B. Brown, a Hamilton County native who had served as Tennessee's state rural school inspector from 1914 to 1921 and briefly as State Superintendent of Schools; he resigned in 1926. The second director, from 1926 forward, was Robert N. Chenault, former principal of Trousdale County High School, who in 1931 profiled the school at length in The Nation's Schools.

Portrait photograph of Professor J. B. Brown in glasses and a dark suit, framed as a memorial portrait
Figure 13. John B. Brown. Courtesy of Richard Hardy Memorial School. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
Portrait photograph of Professor R. N. Chenault in round glasses and a dark suit
Figure 14. Robert N. Chenault. Courtesy of Richard Hardy Memorial School. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.

Curriculum and practical classes

The curriculum covered kindergarten through grade 12 and was unusually broad for a Tennessee public school of the 1920s. Home economics and manual training were part of the core program: foods classes met twice a week in 8th grade, sewing and home construction classes served older girls, and a manual training shop with jig saw, lathe, and woodworking tools served the boys.

Students and teacher working in the foods laboratory classroom, with ranges and prep tables arrayed in rows
Figure 16. Foods Laboratory at the Dixie Portland Memorial School. Courtesy of Richard Hardy Memorial School. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
Students working at sewing machines arranged in rows in the sewing laboratory classroom
Figure 17. Sewing Laboratory at the Dixie Portland Memorial School. Courtesy of Richard Hardy Memorial School. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
Students working at woodworking benches with hand tools and lathes in the manual training shop
Figure 18. Manual Training Shop at Dixie Portland Memorial School. Courtesy of Richard Hardy Memorial School. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.

A “special class” of about 26 students in 1927, for children whose needs were not met by a large-group setting, covered health, citizenship, manual training, domestic science, gardening, and academics; the students wove rugs on a loom and cultivated two acres on plant grounds whose produce they kept. Literary societies (Emersonian, Tennysonian), a 4-H Garden club, a Junior Red Cross chapter, Boy and Girl Scout troops, and girls' and boys' athletic clubs rounded out school life.

Students in the special class gathered around a weaving loom in a classroom
Figure 19. The “Special Class” at the loom. Courtesy of Richard Hardy Memorial School. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.

The building as a community venue

The 625-seat auditorium above the memorial lobby served as a community theater as well as a school space. Penn-Dixie stockholder John A. Miller donated moving-picture equipment to the school in late 1926, and from January 1927 onward movies were screened on Friday evenings at ten cents for children and twenty for adults: The Sea Hawk, Peter Pan, The Dark Angel, and The Courtship of Miles Standish ran that first season. The auditorium also hosted student plays, musical performances, Parent-Teacher Association meetings, singing conventions, field days, and community fairs. By 1931 the school library held 4,200 circulating volumes, used regularly by community members as well as students.

Plan and exterior architectural features

Architectural floor plan showing the T-shaped first floor of Richard Hardy Memorial School with room labels
Figure 30. The first floor of Richard Hardy Memorial School is constructed in a T-shape plan. Reprinted from Robert N. Chenault, “How A Dream Transformed Education in this Tennessee Town,” The Nation's Schools 8 (November 1931): 33–40. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.

The school is one of the best-preserved Neoclassical schoolhouses of its era in Tennessee. The two-story portico has six Doric columns and an ornate entablature with an alternating diamond and bulls-eye motif; the pedimented parapet bears the carved inscription Richard Hardy Memorial School. Two main entrances have solid oak double doors with rectangular glass panels and the original globe lanterns. Twelve-light double casement and sash ribbon windows run the facade, with four Palladian windows along the second-floor central bay lighting the auditorium. Each wing has double corner pilasters.

Portico, pediment, and entrances

Close-up of the left corner of the portico entablature showing alternating diamond and bulls-eye motifs along the frieze
Figure 31. Detail of the left hand corner of the portico entablature featuring alternating diamond and bulls eye motif. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
Left entrance to the school, with solid oak double doors under a rectangular glass transom and a globe lantern
Figure 32. Left entrance to the Richard Hardy Memorial School. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
Pedimented parapet rising above the portico entrance, with bulls-eye frieze and the carved building name
Figure 33. Pedimented parapet above portico entrance. The frieze along this portion of the building features a bulls eye motif and the name of the building. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
Double corner pilasters rising through two stories at one corner of the building's wing
Figure 34. Double corner pilasters are located at all four corners of each wing. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.

Wings and rear facades

Rear facade of the left wing showing regular rows of windows and pilaster-flanked bays
Figure 35. Rear facade of left wing. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
Side facade of the left wing showing three bays of sash windows with pilasters and entablature
Figure 36. Side facade of left wing. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
Side facade of the right wing with paired window bays, decorative pilasters, and diamond-and-bullseye frieze
Figure 37. Side facade of right wing. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
Rear facade of the right wing showing six-over-six ribbon windows at the upper level
Figure 38. Rear facade of right wing. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
Right side facade at the base of the T plan, featuring the tall Palladian windows of the auditorium
Figure 39. Right side facade of base of “T” plan featuring auditorium's Palladian style windows. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.

Interior spaces

Three interior spaces stand out. The memorial lobby has a terrazzo floor, plaster walls, stuccoed ceiling beams, and two bronze tablets: one with the American Legion preamble, the other listing 72 Dixie Portland employees who served in World War I. The library, on the second floor above the lobby, has an arched ceiling, terrazzo floor, walnut shelving, paneling, and window seats, with original walnut tables and chairs. The auditorium has walnut seating, cast iron aisle enclosures embossed with the letters D and P for Dixie Portland, and an ornamental stucco proscenium and ceiling. As of Wilkerson's 2003 fieldwork, the original wall lanterns in the lobby were still functional, some of the original books selected by Hardy remained on the library shelves, the auditorium's multicolored theater lights still worked, and the original movie projector was still in the third-floor projection room; the present condition of these features is [needs verification].

Lobby, stairwell, and library

Long corridor of the first floor viewed from the memorial lobby entrance, with terrazzo floor and globed lanterns
Figure 40. View of entire length of first floor from memorial lobby entrance. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
Interior stairwell with cast iron stair rails and solid oak handrails rising to the second floor
Figure 41. Stairwell leading up to second floor. Constructed of cast iron stair rails with solid oak handrails. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
1927 interior view of the school library with walnut shelving, window seats, and arched ceiling
Figure 42. The library at Richard Hardy Memorial School in 1927. Reprinted from the Dixie Portland Memorial School News. Courtesy of Richard Hardy Memorial School. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.

Auditorium

Close-up of auditorium theater seats with cast iron aisle enclosures embossed with the letters D and P for Dixie Portland
Figure 43. Theater seating in the auditorium featuring the initials of the company that built the school, the Dixie Portland Cement Company. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
View of the auditorium stage with ornamental stucco proscenium and theater curtain
Figure 44. View of auditorium stage. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
View from the stage toward the rear of the auditorium, showing rows of walnut seats and the balcony
Figure 45. View of rear of auditorium. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.

Classrooms and kindergarten

The kindergarten room has a cement-and-cast-iron fireplace with a nursery-figure frieze. As of Wilkerson's 2003 fieldwork, many classrooms were still using the original 1926 walnut desks, slate blackboards were largely retained, and a picture collection of 24 oil-tinted reproductions that Hardy selected for the classrooms was still hanging, including Gainsborough's The Blue Boy, Corot's Dance of the Nymphs, Sargent's Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, Van Dyck's Baby Stuart, and Homer's Fog Warning. The present condition of these furnishings is [needs verification].

Rows of original 1926 walnut student desks arrayed in a classroom, still in use
Figure 46. Original student desks placed in the building in 1926 continue to be utilized by students. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.
Cement-and-cast-iron fireplace in the kindergarten room, with a nursery-figure frieze along the mantel
Figure 47. Cement and cast iron fireplace located in the Kindergarten room. Source: Wilkerson 2003 thesis.

A separate special school district

Unlike every other public school in Marion County, Richard Hardy Memorial has always operated outside the county system. The Richard City Special School District is a standalone Tennessee special school district, with its own elected board and funding. South Pittsburg annexed the surrounding Richard City community in the 1980s, but the special school district persisted and continues to operate independently today.

National Register listing, 1982; company handoff, 1985

In 1982, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places under a nomination prepared by R. Paul Cross for the Tennessee Historical Commission. On June 3, 1985, Dixie Cement, Inc., the Moore McCormack Resources subsidiary that had owned the plant and school since 1981, deeded the building and roughly eight acres of grounds to the Richard City Special School District for a purchase price of one dollar.

Building additions, 1995 to 2006

A decade after the 1985 handoff, the Richard City Special School District began expanding the campus beyond the original 1926 building in stages. In 1995, the school added a second, freestanding building beside the parking lot and extended its offerings to include grades 9 through 12 for the first time, reaching the full PreK to 12 span it still covers today. As the school approached its 75th anniversary in 2001, a renovation program in the 1926 Historic Building updated the electrical wiring and plumbing and added a central heating and air-conditioning system. In 2006, a third building was constructed behind the campus, with a new gymnasium, a new cafeteria, and additional classrooms on an upper level.

The three buildings divide the school's functions. The 1926 Historic Building continues to house the elementary grades, Special Education offices, the auditorium, a small gym, and the teachers' lounge. The 1995 Middle Building, beside the parking lot, houses the middle school, the main office, the library, a computer lab, and the maintenance office. The 2006 Back Building houses the high school, the cafeteria, the main gymnasium, locker rooms, a weight room, and the Athletic Director's office.

Today

Richard Hardy Memorial remains in operation at 1620 Hamilton Avenue in South Pittsburg as one of a small number of Tennessee public schools to serve students from PreK through grade 12 on a single campus. Recent enrollment figures range between roughly two and three hundred students.

The 1926 Historic Building is entering its centennial year in 2026 and remains in daily educational use. Elementary classrooms meet in the rooms Richard Hardy planned, the memorial lobby still carries the bronze tablet naming the 72 Dixie Portland employees who served in World War I, and the building continues to function as the civic heart of the community Hardy and the Dixie Portland Cement Company built around it. The school describes the interior as in near-original condition; exterior maintenance of a National Register building of this age is the standing long-term need.

The Richard City Special School District is one of a small number of standalone special school districts remaining in Tennessee, and it operates outside the countywide tax base. The arrangement lets the community keep a fully local public school, but it also means that the upkeep of the 1926 building rests on a small local tax base and on the school's own fundraising rather than on a larger countywide capital budget. Readers interested in the school or in supporting its preservation and programs can learn more through the district's website or its Facebook page.

Related

About Richard City (company town) →
About Dixie Portland Cement →
About Richard Hardy →
About South Pittsburg →

Sources