Hazel Green Academy was a school in the little village of Hazel Green, eastern

Wolfe County Wolfe County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,562. Its county seat is Campton. The county is named for Nathaniel Wolfe, one of the first two graduates of the University of Virginia ...

, eastern

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

. It was established in 1880 by a Charter from the Kentucky Legislature. The bill was introduced by a Hazel Green citizen, Senator W.O. Mize. The Founders of the school were Mize and his wife, Hazel Green merchant, J. Taylor Day, and Green Berry Swango. The first classes were held in the Hazel Green Masonic Hall, before a permanent school building was erected downtown in 1885. N. B. (Napoleon Bonaparte) Hays was the first principal. He was later the Attorney General of Kentucky. At the invitation of the Founders, in 1886, the Kentucky Christian Woman's Board of Missions (CWBM), a sisterhood of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), assumed operation of the financially ailing school. The magnitude of the undertaking as the "Kentucky Mountain Mission" caused the Kentucky Board to appeal to the National CWBM at Indianapolis for support. By 1919, the CWBM was enveloped in the new United Christian Missionary Society (UCMS) which sponsored the Academy. The school closed on August 31, 1983. Its last Director was Robert "Sandy" Goodlett and the last Principal was Bob Dailey. Dailey was the principal, 1980–83. Before that he was the math and science teacher for two years. In its earlier years, the Academy was called the "Athens of the West" and the "Mother Mountain School" as it preceded other private, missionary and public schools in its 20 county service area by several years. Much of the Academy complex was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1979, qualifying because of its significant place in the area's history.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places School buildings completed in 1910 Defunct schools in Kentucky Education in Wolfe County, Kentucky Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky National Register of Historic Places in Wolfe County, Kentucky 1910 establishments in Kentucky