Description
Beauregard High School was created in 1927. It started out as an amalgamation of several rural one room schools including, Whatley, Thompson, Hopewell, Hinson, Parker’s Cross Road, and Dorsey Schools. Its original name was Whatley High School, After 1927 the school also included the addition of Baron’s Cross Road, Sand Hill, Watoola, Pleasant Grove, Pierce Chapel, and Marvin Schools. The new collection of schools kept the name Whatley even as they added a 12th grade so senior students wouldn’t have to go to the Auburn High school seven miles away from Opelika in Auburn, Alabama.
In 1928 a teacher at the school, Kate Grimett Parker, made a request to change the school name to honor Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, who ushered in the Civil War when he initiated fire on Fort Sumpter on April 12th, 1861. The request to change the name of the school from Whatley High School to Beauregard High School was granted by the Lee County School District in 1928.