The "Brick" School
Construction of the two-room Brick schoolhouse began in 1921, after a loan of $13,000 was secured for the project. The building was completed in 1922, however the mortar work needed to be redone shortly after. On the main floor the building contained two classrooms, one for grades 1 through 6, and one for grades 7 through 12. In the basement were separate boys and girls playrooms, and indoor chemical toilets. In 1925 a well was dug in front of the school, and the schoolyard was treed.
In 1927 a third room added by connecting the new school to the original wooden school. Originally intermediate students were taught in the attached schoolhouse, but due to tight quarters this was changed in 1934, and elementary students were moved to this room.
As a result of fundraisers held in 1938, a piano was purchased for the school. The piano was located in the wooden schoolhouse, and lessons were given after school.
In March 1946, a fire of unknown origin broke out in the cloakroom of the brick schoolhouse. The fire was quickly extinguished, and the damage was repaired for $30.
The school was electrified in the early 1950s, along with the rest of the town. Water and sewer services did not come to the school until 1964. In response to the population boom after the discovery of oil in the area in 1951, the basement was remodeled and made into a classroom. The brick school continued to operate concurrently with Rossville School, built in 1957, until it was closed and demolished in 1973
Facilities in the brick school were limited compared with modern schools. The laboratory was a white table with black shelves located at the back of the classroom. Among the options for upper grades were classes in Agriculture, Latin, French and Chemistry. School plays were a regular part of school.
Read more about this topic: Coleville School District No. 3645, Schools
Famous quotes containing the words brick and/or school:
“Protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. It is the clay of the potter: which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature from the commonest brick or sun-dried clod.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)
“While most of today’s jobs do not require great intelligence, they do require greater frustration tolerance, personal discipline, organization, management, and interpersonal skills than were required two decades and more ago. These are precisely the skills that many of the young people who are staying in school today, as opposed to two decades ago, lack.”
—James P. Comer (20th century)