Whitthorne Junior High School opened in 1937 with 249 students and six teachers.  The campus was located adjacent to Columbia Central High School in downtown Columbia.   When a new high school was constructed in 1961, the school expanded into the vacated high school structure.  In 1976, Whitthorne Junior High moved into a new building with a spacious campus located two miles west of the city’s downtown commercial district. Whitthorne Junior High School became Whitthorne Middle School in 1988 when the ninth grade students were moved to the high school and the city’s sixth grade classes joined the student population. It is the oldest and largest of three middle schools in Maury County.