COW PATHS AT KHS
Postmaster Phil Jordan and Mr & Mrs G V Romig
verified an interesting story concerning Keyser High School (Now
Grand Central Business Center).
Back in the early part of the century, a German
family by the name of Koelz opened a bakery on Main Street (where
Kaplon's was). One of the Koelz's sons was Fred, who became principal
of KHS and William who became a dentist and was elected mayor of the town.
The property where the Grand Central Stands was the
site of the home and barns of Col Tom Davis. A new school was needed
and William went to Philadelphia and obtained an option on the land
from the Davis heirs. He returned home and informed the School Board
that if the new school did not go on the property, he intended to
divide it into lots for homes. The board quickly agreed that the
school would be built on the site.
Steep stairs connected the Davis mansion to the E
Piedmont - Davis St intersection. The late Dr. William Koelz still
had a few ideas and a steep walkway to the school was not one of
them. He worried that children in the winter time would fall and be injured.
The grade was steep, and he wondered just how to
make it safe. He remembered the story of the Union Pacific Railroad
following buffalo trails across the Rocky Mountains because the
animals somehow found the easiest route both ascending and
descending. He decided that if this method proved successful for the
Union Pacific, it just might solve the problem at the school.
He borrowed a cow from Bertrum Rowles and put her
inside the white picket fence around the property. He had the cow's
pat's up and down the lawn staked and these became the walkways
students at Keyser High School used since 1924.