Amesbury Middle School - History

History

Founded in 1918 as the Amesbury Junior High School, and comprising the 7th and 8th grades, the Amesbury Middle School has seen much change. From 1918 to 1953, the AJHS was housed in the old Amesbury High School building, built in 1882. When the building was declared unsafe for human habitation in 1953, the entire 7th and 8th grades, under the watch of Principal Edward Boulter, were moved to the brick high school building across the street, causing the high school to initiate double sessions. After a whirlwind building project, a 16-classroom addition to the high school was built to house grades 5 through 8. The $680,000 addition, designed by the architects of S. W. Haynes & Associates, Inc., opened on September 7, 1955. It housed 16 classrooms, a gym, a home economics unit, wood shop and office. The old gym in the high school was then retrofitted as a cafeteria for both schools. 1962 saw the complete departmentalization of the lower grades and the appointment of department heads. After the Amesbury High School burned down in April 1964, the Amesbury Junior High School expansion project was begun. An addition to the old junior high school wing, now renamed the Amesbury Middle School, was designed by Walter Scott Brodie of Kilham, Hopkins, Greeley & Brodie of Boston, and contained an administration suite, guidance and nurses office, a library, a cafetorium, band room, art room, two science labs, nine classrooms, a metal shop and a mechanical drawing shop. The new wing opened on January 2, 1968, but, due to the closing of the town's parochial schools, as well as construction of a number of apartment complexes in Amesbury during the early 1970s, the school's student population skyrocketed to 900, and the school district was forced to move the 5th grade to the new Charles C. Cashman Elementary School, opened in late 1975. By the mid-1970s, amid a flurry of administrative turnovers, the school began to move toward a true middle school system, organizing into academic teams. This system was slowly developed until it was adopted in totality in the late 1980s, with the final abolishment of academic departments. After several attempts, November 1995 saw the opening of the middle school renovation and expansion project. The project saw the construction of a new wing to house the 5th and 6th grades, the administration, computer labs, library and a performance center. The rear classroom wing was removed and a new 7th and 8th grade wing was built in its place. The center of the building was renovated and brought up to current building codes, creating new classrooms out of the old art room, main office, expanding the old cafetorium to a regular cafeteria, created a new art suite in the old library, expanded music facilities, and generally modernized the building. The project was designed by the TAMS Consultants firm. Today, the Amesbury Middle School and the Charles C. Cashman Elementary School make up some of the more modern school buildings in the area.