Schools here had their beginnings back in the days of Company Shops. The railroad built a school/church building, the Union School or Union Church , depending on the given day. It was near the present day Allied Churches building on Fisher Street. Later the city schools were born, and now Burlington's schools operate in a system apart from the county system. For many years the school was on Broad Street, later Burlington High School and elementary schools grew up around the city. A picture with names written on the back, found in the May Memorial Library of the old Union School, not dated, but believed to be during the turn of this century were: Beaulah FOSTER, Bascom HORNADAY, Carl BOWDEN, Zeb ROBINSON, Freeman NEESE, Bob WHITE, Russell GARNER, Ernest PATTERSON, Date MOODY, Algie TATE, Frank CURTIS, Bessie PERRY, Elon HERITAGE, Juanita ROSS, Earle LASLEY, Frank MITCHELL, Thomas STAFFORD, John FAUCETT, Fannie CLAPP, Charlie SHARPE, Calvin FREDERICK, Carl HORNADAY, Willie SULPHIN, Julia WALKER, Margaret FREEMAN, Elizabeth BASON, Savannah SHOFFNER, Wayne CURTIS, Sallie NEWLIN, Laura NEWLIN, Flossie McPHERSON, Mabel ISLEY, Bettie Vann WARD, Hazel ALBRIGHT, Lillie MEBANE, Edith WALKER, Josie PERRY, Verna CATES, Dalph FOWLER, and Katherine WILLIS. It was in 1951 that Burlington High School was closed and Williams High School was opened on South Church Street. The new auditorium there opened the door to many new events for this area. The Miss North Carolina Beauty Pageant came here three times in the 1950s. In 1970 Hugh M. Cummings High School was opened on the eastern side of the city and now middle schools serve eastern and western districts. In 1918 there was a huge fire that destroyed the central business section of Burlington. Shopping centers arrived in the 1960s. In the 1970s two blocks of Main Street were closed, and a shopping mall was made there. In the 1980s with the help of the North Carolina Main Street Program, a considerable renovation of the building fronts were restored to original appearance. The railroad has been long since left Burlington but its remnants remain. The Ferguson Supply Company building stands as the most vivid reminder of railroad days. It is the oldest building still standing on the railroad line. The old passenger depot, remains but in a new location and with new uses. Had it not been for that railroad, there may have not been a Burlington. In fact had it not been for Graham in the 1850s not wanting the railroad, there might not have been Company Shops, later called Burlington. Burlington, a city born of the railroad, and bred on the loom. Burlington, a town that I grew to love while growing up there. The End...