typewriting, telegraphy, art, music and normal departments.
World War I and the "Great Influenza Outbreak" of 1918 had a significant impact on the academy and the Buies Creek community. According to Bruce Blackmon, the influenza outbreak also inflicted a serious toll on some families—"If you saw a house and there was no smoke coming out of its chimney, that was an indication that the person responsible for heating the home was no longer alive."
Electric lights came to the campus in 1918. J.A. Campbell secured a $60,000 donation from Mr. B.N. Duke in 1927 to establish modern water and sewage facilities on the campus.
There were 620 students enrolled in the school in 1923, and the first dormitory for boys was completed that year. It later became known as Layton Dormitory.
According to J. Winston Pearce, "The evening of September 26, 1923, was a significant date for the life of the school." That evening D. Rich – treasurer of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company – spent the night in the Campbell home and that morning …
