KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – One of Knoxville’s oldest schools celebrated its 100 year anniversary on Thursday night.

Green Magnet Math and Science Academy was founded in 1909 as the Green School. At the time its purpose was to educate the city’s black children.

To mark its 100 years of service to the community, former students and faculty attended a special ceremony at the Crowne Plaza on Summit Hill.

“We want to continue and provide resources to the children so they don't have any excuse not to get an education," said Vivian Williams, Green Magnet Academy’s campus manager.

Among the former faculty members who attended the celebration was Lois Kelly, 102 who once taught at the school. State Rep. Joe Armstrong, Superintendent Jim McIntyre and radio personality Hallerin Hilton Hill were also in attendance.

Green School was named in honor of Dr. Henry Morgan Green, who was a well-known Knoxville resident and Alderman from the city’s fifth ward when the school was built.

It has been used for a variety of purposes for local education since 1909. It originally served only kindergarten through second grade. The city raised taxes to build an annex in 1915 and changed the school’s name the following year to Knoxville Colored High School. For three years it became a first through tenth grade school in order to accommodate students from the old Austin High School on Central Avenue. It expanded to the 11th grade in 1919 and its population continued to grow until the current Austin East High School was built in 1929.

Green School’s old name was restored and it was home to students from the third through eighth grades until 1951 when it became just an elementary school again.