North Marion High School is a public Double A high school in the U.S. state of West Virginia, with a current enrollment of 905 students.North Marion High School is located approximately 4 miles from Farmington, West Virginia on US Route 250 north. While it is closer to the city of Mannington, West Virginia, and is often considered to be located in Rachel, West Virginia, the school mailing address is Farmington. Rachel is a small coal mining community located adjacent to the school, and is an unincorporated municipality.North Marion High School is represented as "Grantville High School" in the popular alternative history novel 1632 by writer Eric Flint. The novel is set in the fictional town of Grantville, which is based on the real town and surroundings of Mannington.HistoryNorth Marion High School was completed and opened in September, 1979, and, with over 1,600 students, was at the time one of the largest high schools in West Virginia. The school is a consolidated high school (grades 9 through 12) made up of four former high schools that closed in the consolidation: Barrackville, Monongah, Mannington and Fairview. Farmington High School, which closed in 1975 because of structural problems caused by mine subsidence, is often considered to be part of the consolidated group (even though it had been closed prior to the building of the new school). The four former high schools were converted to middle schools, with all four buildings remaining in current use. One of which, Mannington Middle is the oldest currently used school in West Virginia, opening in 1902.
