A Dose of Nostalgia
A couple of weeks ago I posted some photos of the annual fundraiser for the school where my kids went to elementary and middle school. I thought it would be worth posting some more photos of the school itself.
I recently found out that the building opened in September 1924, so this fall will mark the 100th year it’s been around. My wife and I once met a woman who lived in our house who was born in 1925, and she went here as a child. And then over 70 years later, our kids followed in her footsteps. Over the years new wings have been added, but you can still see the original core here.
It’s a big place! Over 1,200 kids from kindergarten through eighth grade go there. I think it’s the biggest elementary/middle school in the entire city public school system, and it draws kids from a pretty big slice of the city, from all walks of life.
It was inspired by Italian romanesque architecture, and I’m not sure what the function of that central tower originally served – maybe a bell tower, or possibly a smokestack for the old coal furnace.
Parents have traditionally done a lot for the school. In addition to sponsoring the spring fundraising festival every year for something like 80 years, they’ve raised money for features like this playground for the youngest grades.
A parent who was a metalsmith made fences in the shape of koi several decades ago.
In the courtyard by the playground are the entrances to the kindergarten classrooms, and over each door is a unique stained glass window made by a parent long ago.
Just like in countless years past, during recess kids have taken chalk and drawn on the building’s walls.
During the fundraiser, the front door was left open with nobody in the office checking visitors in, so I took advantage and walked around a bit.
Inside, just as I remembered it, there still murals on many walls.
And art teachers have continued the long tradition of decorating the halls with works by students young and old.
There are a bunch of anti bullying posters made by the students.
They seem kind of corny, but detailed studies have shown that the anti-bullying programs in recent years have made a big difference.
I’m not sure how much comes down to changing attitudes among kids and how much is due to teachers and administrators taking the issue more seriously, but incidents and severity are down in school systems by a significant degree across the country. Despite going to this big city public school in a system that has been routinely villainized in the national press, my kids weren’t run through gantlets, victimized or hazed. They actually got a good education and made lots of friends.
And here you can peek through the door of my daughter’s kindergarten classroom. I can still almost see in my mind’s eye the Thanksgiving lunch with all of the kids dressed in paper costumes, the teacher’s conferences held while sitting on tiny chairs, and the little recital showing off folk songs they had learned.
Cool school & I love the stained glass. A brewery that started in Oregon buys old historical buildings, including a bunch of schools, and converts them to theme hotels. Most of the buildings were going to be torn down if they didn’t step in to save them. That looks like it will make one helluva brew/hotel some day! Here’s a link to their whole portfolio
https://www.mcmenamins.com/stay
This is the one closest to us. They even kept the pool & let the community use it (not exactly sure the rules on that one). It’s kind of fun to walk around as all the rooms are named after former teachers. I wish their beer was as good as their place but unfortunately, they changed their priority to hotel/food over keeping up with beer trends.
https://www.mcmenamins.com/anderson-school
Pre-Pandemic, I was looking into a family trip there for a long weekend. They even allowed for dogs iirc.
There’s an old pre-WW2 high school on the other side of town that was converted into condos, and they’re supposed to be pretty cool.
On the other side of things the building where my kids went to high school was built in the 60s and it’s awfully tired.
What a beautiful school and community. Congrats on its centennial!
Love the stained glass and murals.
I went to a similar school, K-8. I have very fond memories of it. I go by when I visit Chicago and even though the ethnic makeup of the neighborhood has changed, the faces of students and hopes of the parents has not.
Late, as always.
I grew up next to an elementary school. Literally, the only thing that separated us was the parking strip for the teachers.
I loved that Eisenhower-era elementary school, basement fallout shelter (oh, yes, we were taken on more than one tour of it) and lack of air-conditioning and all. So much so that the summer after I graduated high school jobs were impossible to find. The unemployment rate was very high and no one wanted an 18-year-old who could only work for three months before he floated off to university.
So I walked over there and collared my first-grade teacher, who was not young. She agreed to take me on as an unpaid…paraprofessional, I guess…to help her out with the summer school curriculum. This (because it was a much more civilized time) was not punishment but cultural enrichment, for lack of a better term. Also, day care was not really a thing so in my town in the summer it was either camp or summer school.
What did I do with these 6-year-olds? Water colors. Learning the American songbook. Basic geography. Jewelry making, if you can believe it, but at the time there were plasticky, it was like thick dental floss, strips and you could braid it and bead it and make necklaces and bracelets out of it. Every day I read something brief to the kids but I can’t remember what. That’s probably a good thing because in the intervening 40 years I’m sure that at that school a lot of it wouldn’t have passed muster today. I do remember having a giant illustrated book and trying to explain The Civilization of Ancient Egypt and how ancient it was and the pyramids and Antony and Cleopatra but God knows what kind of Elizabeth Taylor trivia I managed to sneak in. I’m almost positive I must have said, “And you know when she stole Eddie Fisher away from Debbie Fisher—” “That’s enough, Mattie. We’re going to the cafeteria.” “Wait, I’m not done! He was also married to Connie Stevens! Briefly, granted, but—“
An 18-year-old. No internet.
I’m actually laughing, remembering all this. I’d come home. “How was your day at school?” “I love those little creatures so much. One of them asked me if I had ever been to the moon. I said, no, why do you ask? And she said, well, you’re old enough, aren’t you?” [I was in first grade myself during the Apollo moon landing.]