A two-story brick school was built in 1917 over the ruins of The Charles F. Crisp Institute, which had been destroyed by fire in 1916. The courthouse was used as a school until construction was completed, and a bond issue funded the new building. Originally it taught only students who lived in Ellaville, but in 1937 the high school grades from the entire county began attending there, and its name changed to Schley County High School. That year, an auditorium was added to the back of the building and a gymnasium was built on Oglethorpe Street. The school stood on College Street where the Schley County EMS Building is now located, and it was demolished in the mid-1980s.