All About Cone Elementary School.

School History                                                                              

Ceasar and Moses Cone founded Proximity Management Company and later three cotton mills: Proximity, Revolution and White Oak. These brothers contributed a great deal to their community, including YMCAs and free schools for the children of mill workers. The Cone family stressed the importance of education. The Cone brothers also provided low cost housing for their workers. At one time, 1,600 families occupied Cone houses in villages around the mills.  The Cone brothers built four schools that operated nine months of the year. At that time, Guilford County Schools were only open four months of the year. The four schools enrolled 1,600 children and included modern and comfortable buildings. Proximity School was outside the Greensboro City limits, but the Cones paid the Greensboro City Schools Superintendent, George A. Grimsley, to superintend this school as well.

Cone School, which was formerly a little red school building, was originally located on Sixteenth Street, across the street from the present building. The current building which houses Cone Elementary School was built in 1935 with funds from the WPA and the Proximity Mfg. Co. (now Cone Mills). There are still inscriptions on the building and the corner stone is on the north corner next to the office. Inside the north door, there is a plaque giving information about this building, the architects, and board members when Cone School was built.

Initially, Cone School served the children of mill workers. Many current students still live in the cement-constructed mill houses on Church Street and the surrounding area. Today, the student population at Cone is very diverse, including many international students. In the early 1990's, Cone was modernized to bring water, air conditioning, and grounded electrical plugs to each classroom. Although the beautiful hardwood floors had to go, every effort was made to keep wood and trim wherever possible. It is a handsome building with the best of old and new. 

In 2001, construction began on a new wing which houses classrooms for Cone's kindergarten students. Along with the construction, the school was wired with state of the art technology which includes networked computers in each classroom and an IBM compatible computer lab. Construction was completed in the fall of 2002.

Information for the history on this page was taken from an article in the Greensboro Daily News, Saturday, May 29, 1971 by Joe Knox, and from For Whom Our Public Schools Were Named, Greensboro, N.C. by Ethel Arnett 

School Information:

Principal:

Dr. Shannon B. Peeples

Hours:

7:00am – 4:00pm Office hours

7:25am – 2:10 pm School hours