Our History

Formal education in Knightdale began in the early 1900s in a one-room schoolhouse on the farm of town founder Henry Haywood Knight, located on land now occupied by Country Squire Estates Mobile Home Park. As the community grew, the Women’s Betterment Association raised funds to support the school, leading to the construction of a three-room school on First Avenue around 1914. The school became the first rural Wake County school to offer hot lunches, with meals costing 3 cents. High school classes were added in the late 1920s; before then, students attended high school in Wendell or Zebulon.
In 1926, Knightdale High School opened on Ridge Road, and its first graduating class completed the eleventh grade in 1927. After serving the community for 38 years, the building became Knightdale Elementary School. In 1966, high school students moved to the new Vaiden Whitley High School on Rolesville Road, where students from Knightdale and Wendell attended together until East Wake High School opened next door in 1977. Vaiden Whitley was then converted to a middle school. In fall 2004, Knightdale High School reopened in a new facility after a 39-year hiatus. The decades-long connection between Knightdale and Wendell students helped create the fierce but healthy rivalry between Knightdale and East Wake that remains one of Wake County’s—and arguably NC’s—best high school rivalries.

History by William A. (Billy) Wilder, Jr. Former Mayor of Knightdale