Bush Middle School

The first Ensley School was located on Avenue G between 23rd and 24th Streets, the same two streets where the existing school is now on Avenue J. The school was a wooden structure built by the City of Ensley and opened in September 1901 with only grades 9-11. The newly ratified Alabama Constitution of 1901 provided funding for this project. A special tax on saloons repaid a $7,000 loan for the school’s construction. Architect William Spink designed the two-story brick schoolhouse for 600 students. It featured a hip roof with towers marking the inside corners where the wings joined the central building. Tall arched windows punctuated the thick walls at regular intervals. One thing the school lacked was a lunchroom. Students brought their lunches and ate them in the classroom or outside.

By 1903, the school was renamed Bush School after the first Superintendent of Ensley Schools, Ernest Forrest Bush. The existing Bush Middle School carries his name also. Only two students, Margaret Wright and Mattie May Williams, graduated in the school’s first class in 1903. Ten more graduated in 1904, ten in 1905, and sixteen in 1906. There was no class in 1907 as the school added a 12th grade. The next two graduating classes comprised three and eight girls, respectively. Ensley School became a part of the Birmingham School System in 1910 when Ensley was annexed to Birmingham. The high school grades were transferred to the new Ensley High School the same year.

In 1923, a school survey conducted by the Birmingham Board of Education noted that the 22-year-old school was overcrowded with more than 700 students in grades 1-7. An assessment of the school building discovered that the building was “not suitable for further service” and that “the whole building reveals decrepitude and decay and should be abandoned at the earliest possible moment.” In response to the survey, the school board took immediate action and commissioned notable architect David O. Whilldin to design a new school that would be built adjacent to Ensley High School, which Whilldin also designed in 1908.

The current Bush Middle School building officially opened in November 1924. After an addition in 1928, the new school fully replaced the c.1901 building. Further additions were completed in 1952 and 1957. In 1961, the school board approved the addition of a gymnasium and three classrooms to the school. The addition was designed by Henry Sprott Long and constructed by Henry W. Greene for $83,000. Bush School was last expanded in the 1990s.

In January 1949, the music room at Bush School was damaged by fire. A damage estimate of $500 was done by Lt. C. E. Bailes, of Fire Department Station No. 16. He said the blaze was confined to one room and that nobody was in the building at the time. A piano was among the damaged items. The fire was spotted by two former students as they were driving by. The women, Mrs. H. D. Fields and Mrs. Fannie Merle Smith, sisters, were driving along 25th Street when they noticed smoke coming from the annex at the school. There was no one around so Mrs. Fields stopped the car and ran into the home of Mr. and Mrs. C. F. Hair, 2501 Avenue K, shouting for Mr. Hair to call the fire department. Mr. Hair called Fire Station No. 16, and Lt. Bailes and his crew responded within minutes. Principal Joseph T. Vaughan said the loss of the annex alone would have amounted to approximately $20,000. He said the school building, although fireproof, could have sustained serious damage.

During a fire on the second floor of the school in March 1984, students were safely evacuated. A teacher in a nearby classroom reported the fire to the principal at 7:40 A.M. Although classes did not begin for another 10 minutes, many of the school’s 369 students had arrived early to eat breakfast in the lunchroom or were milling about in the first-floor hallway. Students were allowed to return to the building a few hours later and classes were held the rest of the day. Bush Principal Ralph Sheetz said Birmingham Fire Department officials suspected a student was responsible for the fire. The principal said that no students were supposed to be on the second floor when the fire broke out. Sixth graders displaced from the burned classroom were housed in a vacant first-floor classroom until repairs could be made. District Fire Chief Eugene Rouveyrol said some coats, textbooks, and other paper materials stored in the cloakroom were destroyed, and the classroom was damaged by smoke and water. Three fire engines, a snorkel truck, and a rescue unit responded to the alarm and extinguished the fire in about 15 minutes. Principal Sheetz said the fire was the second reported fire during the 1983-84 school year. In August 1983, a small fire damaged a first-floor cloakroom. That fire is also believed to be arson but is unrelated since the students suspected were no longer enrolled.

The Birmingham School Board announced plans for a $7 million renovation to Councill Elementary School in Ensley in 2009, but the interim superintendent Kelly Castlin-Gacutan proposed joining the school with Bush Middle School to create a new K-8 school. Students from Councill were transferred to Bush in 2013. That same year, Bush K-8 School was 1 of 10 Birmingham city schools deemed a “failing school” under the Alabama Accountability Act.

In early 2014, the school board proposed the idea of renovating the existing building instead. Some parents opposed the change of plans, arguing that the community had already been promised a new school and that the renovation would not allow for a pre-kindergarten program, parking improvements, and improvements to the athletic fields and playgrounds. Additionally, some parents complained that the existing building may have exposed their children to mold. An investigation by the Jefferson County Health Department found “a single, isolated instance” of mold in a locked supply closet and removed it.

The school board approved the renovation plan in June 2014 and stated that students would be sent to Center Street Middle School until it was completed. Residents petitioned to reopen Councill Elementary School, but Castlin-Gacutan noted that it is in poorer condition than Center Street. In August 2016, architect Nolanda Hatcher presented several renovation options, but all of them exceeded the budget. Ultimately, the renovation plans were shelved, and the money was placed into deferred maintenance system wide. After Bush Middle School closed permanently, it remains in serious disrepair and among more than a dozen abandoned city schools.

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