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Kestrel
| | Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2001 - 4:57 pm: |     |
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Kestrel
| | Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2001 - 5:01 pm: | |
In the photo above: My Grandmother, Jessie Elvira Zellers (nee Smith) 2nd row, 6th from left.
There was no Maplewood then! |
Lseltzer
| | Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2001 - 6:34 pm: | |
Goodolddays, what row are you in? |
Bobk
| | Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2001 - 7:02 pm: | |
And perfect timing. CHS graduates tommorow |
Dave
| | Posted on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 5:42 am: | |
Nice pic, Kestrel! |
Mim
| | Posted on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 9:24 am: | |
Isn't that Deadwhitemale in the upper right? (Yep, cool pic.) |
Ejt
| | Posted on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 12:59 pm: | |
Kestrel: do you know where the building was and if it's still standing? Very cool pic! |
Kestrel
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 26, 2001 - 6:58 am: | |
Ejt: I'm not entirely sure where the building was located, but I seem to remember my Grandmother saying it was near where Columbia H.S. stands today, on Acadamy St. Any Historians out there? Anyway, it's long gone now. |
Kathy
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 26, 2001 - 11:54 am: | |
The original Columbia High School ("founded 1885") was located approximately where the PNC Bank (or whatever bank it is this week) building is in the center of South Orange. After the new high school was built in 1927, the old one became South Orange Junior High until the mid-1950's, when a new junior high (now middle school) was built.
The wooden building in this picture is not that high school/junior high building, which was a very impressive masonry Victorian structure. Not sure what this is, or when the other was built, but will try to find out. |
Kathy
| | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2001 - 4:16 pm: | |
Okay, I now think that I know where this was--thanks to my new favorite reading material, Henry W. Foster's "The Evolution of a New Jersey School District". (Foster was the superintendent of the SO school district from 1900-1927.)
Anyway, the first school building in South Orange (pre-Revolution) was a stone building located approximately where the flagpole is today (in the V of Irvington and South Orange Aves.--although at the time Irvington Ave. turned and joined SO Ave. where Academy St. is now). It was displaced when S. Orange Ave. was developed into a toll road, and a new school (two-story, clapboard) was built about where the PNC bank is. That building was used until 1880, when it was moved slightly and a new school (masonry) was built on the old site. Then the property to the east, bordering on Academy St. (which had been cut through by then) was purchased. There was a house there and it was used as an annex to the Columbian School. In 1904 a new elementary school was built behind it on First Street (not the extant First St. School, which dates to 1914). In 1910 the annex was replaced by an addition which connected the high school and elementary school into one large school, with a long-range plan of having it gradually become just a high school as more elementary schools were built.
So I have to believe that the students in this picture are standing in front of the Annex. It was used for classes in science (including chemistry and physics labs), cooking, and woodworking. |
Kathy
| | Posted on Saturday, June 30, 2001 - 5:40 pm: | |
I have found a picture (in the aforementioned book) that confirms that this was indeed the high school annex. You can see the same doorway and everything. I'm out of town at the moment, but I'll try to post it when I get back. |
Kathy
| | Posted on Monday, July 16, 2001 - 9:32 pm: | |
Here is the picture I promised, from Foster's book. In the foreground is the Columbia School, built in 1880 and expanded in 1898. In the background is the elementary school that was built at the corner of First Street and Academy in 1904. And in the middle is the Annex, clearly the same building as in Kestrel's picture.
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Kathy
| | Posted on Monday, July 16, 2001 - 10:10 pm: | |
And here is a picture of the Columbia School after the 1910 addition connected it to the elementary school. The tower was removed when the entrance was moved to the new central section.
The expanded building gradually became only a high school as elementary students were moved into newly-constructed buildings. After the current Columbia High School was opened in 1927, this building became South Orange Junior High School. It was torn down after a new junior high (now South Orange Middle School) was built in the mid-50's.
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Dave
| | Posted on Monday, July 16, 2001 - 10:18 pm: | |
Neat photoze.
Is that tall telephone pole like thing an air raid siren? |
Ptr
| | Posted on Monday, July 16, 2001 - 11:53 pm: | |
Dave - the first photo was prior to World War 1. Definitely not an air raid alarm. Perhaps it's a fire alarm. |
Ejt
| | Posted on Monday, July 16, 2001 - 11:57 pm: | |
Couldn't be. Air raids didn't start til the 1950's. Duck and Cover!!(Bert The Turtle from "The Atomic Cafe") |
R2boy
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 17, 2001 - 7:32 am: | |
In 1956 my class was the last 9th grade to graduate from SOJHS.The picture from Kathy shows the girls entrance on Academy Street.We had very defined areas in those days.Girls on one side boys in the playground...Life was so simple then... |
Ptr
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 17, 2001 - 11:54 pm: | |
Ejt - Remember the 2nd WWar started in1941 and thus began the air raid drills. Even after the end of the war the drills continued in the schools up thru the 50's.As a child in Maplewood I can remember those war years and the noise of the sirens.My father was an air raid warden for our neighborhood.Off he'd go on his patrol and everyone would have to pull down their shades. At least we were being prepared for what fortunately didn't happen. |
Ejt
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2001 - 11:15 am: | |
You're right Ptr. I should've thought of London during those years also! My bad! |
Extuscan
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2001 - 6:09 pm: | |
Ah the air raid sirens... see how everyone misses those? Bring 'em back, TC. Saturdays at noon every resident of Maplewood should realize that time stopped at our borders. |
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