Thomas Families

Original Cost: $5,252,324

Opened: 1988 

Griffith Thomas was the first formally trained professional teacher in Dublin. Thomas was born near York, Pennsylvania on July 5, 1788. When he was 18 years old, he moved to Trumbull County, Ohio and later came to teach in Dublin for two years in the winter and work on a farm in the summer. Wanting to settle down, Griffith toured the South but returned to Ohio as the southern states were all slave states, and he was very much opposed to slavery. Near the close of the War of 1812, Griffith was appointed Colonel of the Regiments of Franklin and Pickaway Counties. He married Sarah Mickey in 1815 and moved to Columbus, where they had three children (all boys), and their daughter was born after they moved to Dublin in 1823. The family lived there until 1853, when they moved into the first house east of Sawmill Road. After he passed away on December 3, 1858, at the age of 70, his widow continued to live in the same house until her death on November 16, 1880. The purpose of naming the school was not so much to honor Thomas specifically as it was to salute all the professional teachers in the Dublin City Schools district; past, present and future, who continue the tradition that Griffith Thomas started.

District enrollment when the building opened was 6,565 students.

The building is 66,018 square feet in size.