…at 307 South Decatur Street, where it has stood for 40+ years, but it has not been a happy four decades for the Board, or for education. For 40 years before that, this was the site of the Decatur Street Elementary School, which in its last decade was called Ledbetter School (named that in honor of a beloved School Principal). Ledbetter was closed circa 1958, and the building was demolished a year or two later. Before it lived here, the Montgomery County School Board spent forty years in the 1855 Gov. Shorter Mansion on South Lawrence Street (now next to the County Courthouse). Back then the Board met in Ante-Bellum splendor in the Dining Room of the venerable old mansion. The architect was Tom B. Kirkland of Montgomery.

-Charles Humphries

A 1907 view of the Decatur Street Elementary School prior to being demolished for the Education offices.

Photo courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History.