The Hattie’s Crossing Story

Cayce’s rich history will lay as the background of an upcoming community development. Cayce Grammar School, our city’s first public school, was founded in 1915 in an old gin house on State Street near the old Cayce Municipal building by Mrs. Harriet Derrenbacher. She was affectionately known by her students as “Miss Hattie.”

Due to a fire, the school was later relocated to lts current location and began as a two room school house. As the city grew, so did the school. Six rooms were added to Cayce Grammar in 1925 when the school housed grades 1 – 7. Miss. Hattie always had “a word of encouragement and counsel for the many friends, former pupils and children who often dropped in to visit her.”

She was considered an advocate not just for the ·school, the students, and the teaching profession; she also believed in our Cayce community.