Portland High School (Tennessee)

Portland High School is located in Portland, Tennessee, United States, just north of Metro Nashville. Portland has a population of about 10,000 people. PHS offers courses including two foreign languages, sciences, social studies, math, welding, agricultural studies, family and consumer sciences, cosmotology, art, and band.

PHS has a school population of approximately 1200 students in grades 9–12.

Serving as the flagship for Sumner County education, Portland High School was the first four-year public high school in the county. The school began in 1874 as Portland Seminary and sat on a 1-acre (4,000 m²) plot of land donated by J.C. Buntin, the son of the town's founder. The building had two stories, the second being used by the Grange. The first story was also used for church services. In 1897 the principal of the school, Professor Z.K. Griffin, was conducting a lab experiment when a fire broke out destroying the building.

A new building was completed in 1898 and was called Portland Seminary. The building was used until abandoned in 1915. From 1910 until 1915, the school was called Portland High School, but it only provided three years of secondary education. Pat W. Kerr was principal from 1910 to 1913. In 1913, P.L. Lloyd became principal and served until 1914, when John W. Williams assumed the position. Almost immediately, the student body outgrew the building. A new school was built in 1915 and was christened Sumner County High School, the first four-year public high school in the county. It had no library, no labs, and only one teacher with a college degree.

B. F. Smith followed Mr. Williams as principal; he served from 1927 until 1931. During this period, the Sumner County Board of education promised a new school building for the increasing student body, a promise fulfilled during the 1931–32 school year. Mr. Smith was succeeded by C.F. Allen, who served from 1931–1935.

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