Our Rich History
As members of the Highland Home Flying Squadron family, we are very proud of our school's history. Highland Home School began as Strata Academy on September 8, 1856. From 1879 to 1881, Strata Academy had many students who contracted typhoid fever. Due to illness three people died. The founder, J.M. Barnes, decided to move the school.
During the spring and summer of 1881, the new school was built on five hundred acres of land six miles south of Strata, one mile over the Crenshaw County line. Not only did this mark the birth of a new school, it also marked the creation of a new town. The new school was located on a high narrow ridge, so the new town was appropriately named Highland Home. The new school, Highland Home Institute, brought culture to the frontier of Alabama with classes in music, foreign language, science, literature, and drama, reading, writing, and arithmetic. On October 1, 1889, the school's name changed to Highland Home College.
In June of 1916, after several years of reduced funding and fewer students enrolling, the property of the college was sold for $5.00; and was to be used as the location of a local high school. The school was named Crenshaw County High School, and it educated both elementary and high school students. The mascot for Crenshaw County High School was the Panthers. During World War II, many members of the high school's football team were drafted and served in the United States Military's Airborne Division. One afternoon a neighborhood spotter, who was watching for French airplanes, spotted fourteen or fifteen planes flying overhead. He ran to the school and called the coach outside to look at the planes. When the coach saw the planes, he replied, "Why, that's a whole squadron of them." When the young men returned from the war, the school began to put the football team back together. In honor of their service in the Airborne Division, the team's mascot was changed to "The Flying Squadron."
Gradually, the school's name changed from Crenshaw County High School to Highland Home High School. On Friday, February 4, 1972, the main office building burned. Four days later, classes resumed in the gym where six classrooms had been set up. Within the next year, a new main building had been completed.
Over the years, there have been many additions and renovations to our campus. Perhaps the most notable change occurred in October of 2008 when our long-awaited F-16 fighter jet was lifted into its place of honor on the school's campus. We have much to be proud of here at Highland Home School. There are few schools that can compete with our rich history that spans over 160 years.
