Seat of Education

No history of Athens would be complete without including the central role of education in its founding, development, and evolution. Its very name, Athens, is synonymous with education---a specific type of education that focuses on philosophy, literature, mathematics and the arts and sciences as developed in late Classic and Hellenistic Athens Greece. This was contrary to Spartan education which was grounded in war and advanced a particularly brutal style of military training. 

Renaming Concord Church Athens seems especially fitting given circumstances in southern West Virginia following the Civil War.

Chartered February 28, 1872, as a branch of the West Virginia Normal School, Concord State Normal School first opened for classes May 10, 1875, on the grounds now occupied by the Athens public schools. After 40 years, the Normal School relocated across town to its present campus in Spring of 1912. The new campus was developed on 26 acres donated by Stephen and Rhoda Vermillion. The history of Athens and Concord are interwoven; neither would be complete without the other.

The early history, administration, physical plant, and people of Concord are covered in the Schools Section of Athens We Knew. There are also descriptions and first hand accounts of activities and campus life at Concord.