Dry Bridge School
Submitted by Ralph Slate on Tue, 08/21/2007 - 23:15.
Dry Bridge School was an ungraded school built in 1881. It was listed as being only heated by a stove in the 1901 City Report.
The above picture is from a 1952 publication celebrating the Springfield Centennial. I drove by the area where the school was located, and found this house:
This house has the same roofline and general shape of Dry Bridge School. It sits on a lot with the same unusual shape as Dry Bridge School. The city says this particular house was built in 1901, but the city has been wrong before, so I know not to trust that entirely. It seems likely that this is in fact the old wooden schoolhouse built in 1881.
Nice detective work
Nice job hunting this one down. I wonder when the tree in the front yard was planted. It's interesting to note the structural and cosmetic changes to the building as well.
Closed in 1938
I don't know much else about this school, it will take more digging to figure it out. The book I got the photo from was from 1952, but it said "a picture from the past", so the photo was older.
The City Directories used to list the schools. In 1920 the school was listed as "Elementary", with just one teacher. Similar small schools existed: Alden Street School, Boston Road School, Charles Street School, Five Mile Pond School, Glenwood School, Rushville School (Dewey St., near Berkshire), and Sixteen Acres School -- but all others had 2-3 teachers listed, not just one. Sixteen Acres and Five Mile Pond were listed as ungraded, which I take to mean "mixed age".
The 1931 directory lists Dry Bridge as ungraded again. Maybe that fact was an omission in 1920.
The school was last listed as a school in 1938. It was listed as being located at 105 St. James Circle, so the house is without doubt the same building (note the 105 on its porch).
The other ungraded school disappeared from the books in 1938 too: Sixteen Acres. Ironically, I believe that school sat on the property that now houses the Sixteen Acres fire station.
Bowles School
Bowles School opened in the East Springfield area in 1927, and Liberty (on Carew Street) was also built around that time, making that school unneeded by / about 1930 or so.
Also when was the Armory Street School built? I thought it was before 1900, but then again I could be wrong as Chestnut Street was built in 1902, Technical 1905 & Commerce 1915.
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