Althea School

Thompson F. Fowler and his family were among the earliest permanent settlers of this area. A rural community which built up around the family-owned cotton gin became known as Fowler's Gin. A community school, established about 1894, was consolidated with the nearby Alligator School in 1897 to form Fowler Common County Line School District No. 111. In 1900, the community was granted a United States Post Office under the name Althea. Although the post office closed four years later, the school was re-named Althea School in 1908. A new schoolhouse built in 1910 was destroyed by fire in 1916. Althea was consolidated with other area schools in 1917 to form the New Hope School District. Althea withdrew from the consolidation in 1926, however, and remained an independent school until its final closing in 1942. The Althea School building was sold in 1945, and the school was officially annexed to the Bartlett School System in 1948. Although sporadic in its periods of operation, Althea School provided educational opportunities to generations of rural schoolchildren. (1991)