| Author | Message | ||
     extuscan Citizen Username: Extuscan Post Number: 529 Registered: 6-2001 |
That newish looking infill house on Tuscan Rd by Valley St sits on a giant pipe that the stream goes through... and you can walk under the house. I've done it a million times  Anyone else have a Maplewood Secret? -John | ||
| greeneyes Citizen Username: Greeneyes Post Number: 682 Registered: 8-2001 |
OMG- Me, my siblings, and my neighbors used to walk through that pipe. No one wanted to walk behind the kid we called Tank. I was telling my daughter about it just the other day. | ||
| bella Citizen Username: Bella Post Number: 537 Registered: 7-2001  |
There's a house on Schaefer Road (not the house my great grandparents built, but the house next door) whose backyard was once a large pond, it was filled in by the builder. I wonder if the owners have figured out why a moderate rain turns their backyard into a large puddle. | ||
| extuscan Citizen Username: Extuscan Post Number: 530 Registered: 6-2001 |
They sure buried all sorts of stuff! The stream the mysteriously dissappears into a pipe behind some houses on Oakview, and reappears on Tuscan road, takes a trip underground cutting across Courter Ave. We had a big hurricane a long time ago... must have been in the 80's... and there was an enourmous amount of water around. The neighbors driveway apron was all cracked and broken up... and between one of the cracks, shooting probably 3 feet into the air, was a stream of water coming out of that overburdened 70 year old pipe. It was like someone was pissing straight up into the air under a layer of concrete. -John | ||
| bella Citizen Username: Bella Post Number: 538 Registered: 7-2001 |
There is a door in the girl's locker room at CHS that takes you to a courtyard, not the Alumni Courtyard on the side of the auditorium. I don't recall any other way of getting to it. The door was away from the showers, towards B wing. There used to be a nursery/pre school at CHS. It was in C wing, near the home ec class rooms. It is where I went to pre-school.  | ||
| extuscan Citizen Username: Extuscan Post Number: 532 Registered: 6-2001 |
Ohh Columbia Secrets... well there is a favorite. You can walk under the swimming pool. Sorta. Atleast under the deck. There is a greenhouse thats invisible to the street, off the third floor of A-wing in the back. Its completely unused I'm sure. The floor of the TV studio is on stilts. There are classrooms on the corners of A wing have these large pointed arches in the walls... Originally these rooms were open to the hallways and used as locker rooms for bookbags and whatever. There were rows of lockers in each room. In the hallways, the part of the hallway on the sides of A-wing are very wide. Originally, this is where there were large display cases coming out of the walls. When the school was pressed for space, before C D B wings, the lockers were moved out of those rooms and the display cases were removed and replaced with the lockers, still sticking out from the walls. When the extra wings were built, the lockers were removed but the classrooms were never converted back and the display cabinets were never replaced. In the front hallway, the door handle rosettes match the terracotta corners of the walls. Most of the chimmneys are actually part of the ventilation system. The only real fireplace (that I know of...) is towards the B wing side of the front. If you walk up to it on the outside, there are a couple of squirrels built in There were orignally 6 front doors. There were a bit narrower than whats there now, and were replaced with 4 wider doors. The original doors had curved corners on top. They were removed in 1971. When you were in the lobby, there was a second set of doors between the lobby and the front hallway. These were probably removed when the front doors were widened, but were definately there in the 60's. And for all you park slopers: Yes, there is a pipe organ, a swimming pool with barrel vaulted ceilings that used to have chandeliers, and there is an observatory. But thats not much of a secret to the rest of us -John | ||
| kathy Citizen Username: Kathy Post Number: 1194 Registered: 5-2001 |
John, I believe that a recent HSA/Beautification Committee project has been to build new display cases into those filled-in arches. I will take credit for the original suggestion to do this but since I have moved away, I don't know the current status of the project. CHS was certainly in need of display cases--there were trophies and plaques of all sorts scattered around the school, including piles on the floor in the Activities Director's office. | ||
| mjc Citizen Username: Mjc Post Number: 911 Registered: 10-2004 |
kathy, at least some of them have been installed, on the left as you face the auditorium (formerly Mr. Rodriguez' room). They're Beautiful! should have known you were involved. | ||
| Ace789nj Citizen Username: Ace789nj Post Number: 246 Registered: 2-2005  |
To touch on what extuscan said; If you leave the old cafeteria through the north-east door you'll see the janitor's room on the right before going up the hallway's incline. If you go in the janitor's room there's a door on the right (when I was in HS there was a fridge and a stand-up locker blocking it) if you go through that door you can walk under (around) the pool, there were rumors that it was an underground running track but I'm not sure on that, the floor is dirt, there are pipes all over the place. You can get to a place where you can climb up and crawl look around and you'll find the trap doors that lead to the stage. I explored the whole area when I was there, ofcourse all I had were a book of matches to light my way, I was down to my last match in pitch black darkness when I found the hatch..........got out, cleaned my underwear and never went back | ||
| bettyd Citizen Username: Badjtdso Post Number: 84 Registered: 12-2005 |
What about the catwalk that was above the third floor of the old building (A wing?). We used to sneak up there during study break or whatever and go above the classroom of a particular English teacher we didn't like (I can't recall his name now). You could hear him lecturing, then we would yell at him and jump up and down on the catwalk directly above his classroom, making quite a ruckus, then run like hell to the middle stairwell and down to the second floor and safety. | ||
| crossroads Citizen Username: Crossroads Post Number: 121 Registered: 12-2001  |
I remember the catwalks very well. Snuck up there many times during lunch. Also made it into the tower on many occasions too. Lots of pigeons there. I remember I wrote my name up there and a few days later my brother made it up to the tower only to find his little brother made it there before him! | ||
| bella Citizen Username: Bella Post Number: 552 Registered: 7-2001 |
From the 1942 Mirror: COLUMBIA QUIZ WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT YOUR HIGH SCHOOL? 1. How many stories are there in the building? 2. How deep is the swimming pool at the deep end? 3. Where in the building are owls used as decorations? 4. Where does the passenger elevator go? 5. By the way, how many elevators are there? 6. What are the decorations on the ceiling of the main lobby? 7. How many teachers (within 5) are there this year? 8. How many pupils (within 50) are enrolled this year? 9. Do more pupils come from Maplewood or from South Orange? 10. What three courses are offered in the Industrial Arts Dep’t? 11. What course combines two subjects in one? 12. Who are the tree administrative officers in the building? 13. How many people (within 100) can the auditorium seat? 14. What is the last hour of night the clock strikes? 15. In how many sports do we engage in inter-scholastic competition? 16. What public dramatic performances are traditionally presented each year? 17. What are the tow principal student publications? 18. What is the name of the organization for pupil participation in school government? 19. What is at the top of the tower? 20. How many organized clubs are there this year (within 2)? answers: 1. Six, or seven counting the cafeteria. 2. Eight and one-half feet. 3. On the organ pipes in the auditorium. 4. To the sixth floor. 5. Two. 6. Signs of the zodiac. 7. Ninety. 8. 1784. 9. Maplewood 10. Shop, drafting, auto mechanics. 11. The U.S. History-English integrated course. 12. Mr. Threkeld, Mr. Crehan, Miss Henderson 13. 1206 14. Eleven 15. Six 16. Senior play, Parnassian Play, Junior Night 17. The Columbian, The Mirror 18. School Council 19. Observatory, or telescope. 20. Fifteen | ||
| extuscan Citizen Username: Extuscan Post Number: 606 Registered: 6-2001 |
Here are a few CHS facts from a 2004 dated email from Walt Santner: Twenty years ago I served as Co-ordinator of the Columbia High School Centennial. At that time I endeavored to have an architectural inventory taken of the building. Sadly there was no interest in such a project. Many of the 1927 building elements have been lost since 1980. For the information of the committee: 1. The ceiling of the entrance hall is/was a map of the solar system. 2. Several of the original school subject windows which graced the Parker Avenue side of the building are in the in the library. 3. One of the original dated 1926 downspouts is there. 4. The Board of Education scrapbooks from the 1890's to the 1960's are in the Columbia High School Archive which was established during the Centennial. 5. The original door hardware from the auditorium doors were removed in the early 1980's. I believe that the principal at that time took several of them. Some were saved in the District Instructional Resources Office. 6. In one of the courtyards in the 1955 addition is/was a weathervane which was removed many years ago from the original high school building in South Orange before it was demolished. 7. The original blue prints of the school were given to an architectural firm but not returned. Blue prints of the other buildings were in a board archive in the former gym at Fielding School. The material there which had been in a board storage room at South Orange middle school was moved but discarded some years ago. There is/was a board archive in one of the offices at Fielding School. 8. The committee should consider contacting George Goetz who retired as Assistant Principal several years ago. 9. A series of photos documenting all stages of the construction of the school in 1927 are in the archive. 10. The World War One Memorial from the building in South Orange was brought from the American Legion Hall in South Orange during the Centennial and mounted outside the Auditorium. 11. The present school office was originally the office of the school superintendent. The school office was on the other side of the entrance. Walt Santner Maplewood, New Jersey |
